Movies like to tell us that high school is one of the best times of a person's life — but, more often than not, the reality is tougher than that. There's a constant fret of where to fit in, inevitable feelings of loneliness, and irrational criteria for what makes someone "popular."
But what if we were to discover the charm of those difficult moments and transform them into work that has the power to resonate with others? What if we embrace the idea of painful art?
Chandler Levack, Toronto-based writer and director, does exactly that with her witty, nostalgic and genuinely heartfelt feature film debut, I Like Movies. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and is finally hitting Canadian theatres this month.
"Annie Baker, a playwright who I really love a lot, did this interview and she was talking about how the little moments of indignity or shame, or the experiences of boring jobs and friendship breakups, become the raw material that you have to write about," Levack recalls during a Zoom conversation with Exclaim! She adds, "Hopefully you can find the beauty in these painful moments of your life, mythologize them and turn them into art."
Set in early 2000s Burlington, ON, where Levack grew up, I Like Movies is indeed inspired by her own high school experiences. She specifically pulled from her time working at Blockbuster during her senior year and, as Levack notes, "the growing pains, in terms of close friendships falling apart and not really knowing who I was. But also, basing my identity on this love of movies."
Although Levack is no stranger to the film industry: she is an accomplished film and music journalist and has directed several music videos and a short. I Like Movies is her first piece of work that is true to her spirit.
"I felt I had never made anything that actually expressed my real voice and identity as a filmmaker. I love comedy and jokes, awkward moments and people that have deep trauma, too," says Levack. "And that all made me start thinking about my last year of high school when I worked at Blockbuster and this weird period of my life growing up in Burlington. I was really ambitious and desperate to get out and go to university, but also still kind of stuck there."
So, at age 31, Levack ran with this idea rooted in the personal and made I Like Movies through Telefilm Canada's Talent to Watch grant, a program aimed at providing financial support to emerging filmmakers working on their first feature.
"There was this deep primal urge of, 'I have to make a movie or I'm going to die,'" Levack chuckles. "To me, it felt the way that I think other women are like, 'I'm ready to have a baby.' I was ready to make a movie, and the feeling was really strong."
With this meaningful retrospection, and the passion and determination to put a film out into the world, the complex protagonist of Lawrence Kweller, played by TIFF Rising Star Isaiah Lehtinen, came to cinematic life.
Brilliantly portrayed through a female lens, Lawrence is an obnoxious yet vulnerable 17-year-old cinephile who gets a job at the local video store, Sequels, to save money for his dream of going to NYU and becoming a famous film director. To Lawrence, nobody makes it big as a Canadian filmmaker — which is a joke in itself, and just a taste of his massive ego.
Lawrence begins to distance himself from those around him, including his close friend Matt (Percy Hynes White) and his single-parent mother (Krista Bridges). At the same time, he develops an unexpected bond with his store manager, Alana, played by Romina D'ugo, a significant character in her own right.
Levack shares that I Like Movies is an exercise in her past high school self conversing with her present adult self, and understanding her closeness to each of them. "You have this 17-year-old boy, but then you also have this woman in her mid-30s," she explains. "It's these two versions of myself encountering each other with love and affection, but also violence, resentment and collective trauma."
And although she still holds him accountable, Levack intentionally gives Lawrence a redemptive arc by "trying to guide him towards a journey where he can begin to identify other people that exist in the world, all with their own feelings and autonomy." For her, this means having the stories of the women in the film be a large part of that.
"I wanted Alana and Lawrence's mother, Terri, to be real people who exist and every so often you enter their movie for a brief second," Levack reveals. "Even though Lawrence never stops talking in almost every single shot and dominates the frame, I wanted at least a few ruptures of, 'No, you're actually in Alana's movie for a little while, now you're in Terri's movie.' They are the stars of their own movie, just like [how] the world works — everyone is the star of their own movie."
Levack treats Lawrence with great care, allowing space for change and growth — a testament to the undeniable sensitivity towards her own high school self.
When I ask what Levack hopes viewers will ultimately take away after watching I Like Movies, she is quick to say that she doesn't want to impose an expectation on her audience. Levack simply "hopes movies and portraits like this — as cringe as this film is on so many levels — will maybe make us all feel more empathy to our high school selves. Help us acknowledge what terrors we were in high school and be relieved and grateful that we have changed."
She admits with a burst of good-natured laughter, "I feel like my film is just a long apology to my parents and everyone that I was a huge dick to in high school."
And as for the one thing she has learned from her adult life that she would tell her high school self?
Levack's belief is that the adolescent agony that one experiences in life becomes "grist for the mill." She continues, "I would [tell my high school self that] you're going to make a movie with this one day, and it's going to play at film festivals around the world and people are going to see it. So this thing that you love and care about and hold so dearly with you? You're going to make [it] your own movie one day."
Well, you did it, Miss Levack — and I hope Lawrence does someday, too.
But what if we were to discover the charm of those difficult moments and transform them into work that has the power to resonate with others? What if we embrace the idea of painful art?
Chandler Levack, Toronto-based writer and director, does exactly that with her witty, nostalgic and genuinely heartfelt feature film debut, I Like Movies. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and is finally hitting Canadian theatres this month.
"Annie Baker, a playwright who I really love a lot, did this interview and she was talking about how the little moments of indignity or shame, or the experiences of boring jobs and friendship breakups, become the raw material that you have to write about," Levack recalls during a Zoom conversation with Exclaim! She adds, "Hopefully you can find the beauty in these painful moments of your life, mythologize them and turn them into art."
Set in early 2000s Burlington, ON, where Levack grew up, I Like Movies is indeed inspired by her own high school experiences. She specifically pulled from her time working at Blockbuster during her senior year and, as Levack notes, "the growing pains, in terms of close friendships falling apart and not really knowing who I was. But also, basing my identity on this love of movies."
Although Levack is no stranger to the film industry: she is an accomplished film and music journalist and has directed several music videos and a short. I Like Movies is her first piece of work that is true to her spirit.
"I felt I had never made anything that actually expressed my real voice and identity as a filmmaker. I love comedy and jokes, awkward moments and people that have deep trauma, too," says Levack. "And that all made me start thinking about my last year of high school when I worked at Blockbuster and this weird period of my life growing up in Burlington. I was really ambitious and desperate to get out and go to university, but also still kind of stuck there."
So, at age 31, Levack ran with this idea rooted in the personal and made I Like Movies through Telefilm Canada's Talent to Watch grant, a program aimed at providing financial support to emerging filmmakers working on their first feature.
"There was this deep primal urge of, 'I have to make a movie or I'm going to die,'" Levack chuckles. "To me, it felt the way that I think other women are like, 'I'm ready to have a baby.' I was ready to make a movie, and the feeling was really strong."
With this meaningful retrospection, and the passion and determination to put a film out into the world, the complex protagonist of Lawrence Kweller, played by TIFF Rising Star Isaiah Lehtinen, came to cinematic life.
Brilliantly portrayed through a female lens, Lawrence is an obnoxious yet vulnerable 17-year-old cinephile who gets a job at the local video store, Sequels, to save money for his dream of going to NYU and becoming a famous film director. To Lawrence, nobody makes it big as a Canadian filmmaker — which is a joke in itself, and just a taste of his massive ego.
Lawrence begins to distance himself from those around him, including his close friend Matt (Percy Hynes White) and his single-parent mother (Krista Bridges). At the same time, he develops an unexpected bond with his store manager, Alana, played by Romina D'ugo, a significant character in her own right.
Levack shares that I Like Movies is an exercise in her past high school self conversing with her present adult self, and understanding her closeness to each of them. "You have this 17-year-old boy, but then you also have this woman in her mid-30s," she explains. "It's these two versions of myself encountering each other with love and affection, but also violence, resentment and collective trauma."
And although she still holds him accountable, Levack intentionally gives Lawrence a redemptive arc by "trying to guide him towards a journey where he can begin to identify other people that exist in the world, all with their own feelings and autonomy." For her, this means having the stories of the women in the film be a large part of that.
"I wanted Alana and Lawrence's mother, Terri, to be real people who exist and every so often you enter their movie for a brief second," Levack reveals. "Even though Lawrence never stops talking in almost every single shot and dominates the frame, I wanted at least a few ruptures of, 'No, you're actually in Alana's movie for a little while, now you're in Terri's movie.' They are the stars of their own movie, just like [how] the world works — everyone is the star of their own movie."
Levack treats Lawrence with great care, allowing space for change and growth — a testament to the undeniable sensitivity towards her own high school self.
When I ask what Levack hopes viewers will ultimately take away after watching I Like Movies, she is quick to say that she doesn't want to impose an expectation on her audience. Levack simply "hopes movies and portraits like this — as cringe as this film is on so many levels — will maybe make us all feel more empathy to our high school selves. Help us acknowledge what terrors we were in high school and be relieved and grateful that we have changed."
She admits with a burst of good-natured laughter, "I feel like my film is just a long apology to my parents and everyone that I was a huge dick to in high school."
And as for the one thing she has learned from her adult life that she would tell her high school self?
Levack's belief is that the adolescent agony that one experiences in life becomes "grist for the mill." She continues, "I would [tell my high school self that] you're going to make a movie with this one day, and it's going to play at film festivals around the world and people are going to see it. So this thing that you love and care about and hold so dearly with you? You're going to make [it] your own movie one day."
Well, you did it, Miss Levack — and I hope Lawrence does someday, too.
