Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

It’s 2002 in Burlington Ontario, a suburb of Hamilton.

Lawrence is an eccentric, self-centred 16-year-old boy who lives in a small bungalow with his widowed mom. He spends most of his time with his best friend Matt, the two of them watching SNL at weekend sleepovers. They’re making an end-of-the-year film together at school. Lawrence lives and breathes movies, consuming stacks from his local video store. His long-term ambition? To become  an auteur. But first he’ll have to study cinema at NYU (“Canadian universities are too… Canadian”).

To pay for it, he needs big bucks. But when he gets a job at a video chain store, everything changes. He hits it off with the store manager, the older woman who hired him. But no more time for sleepovers, or making his film. His relationship with his doting mom is in a shambles, and he begins to doubt he’ll get into any University. Is just liking movies… enough?

I Like Movies is a coming-of-age comedy that premiered at TIFF. It explores the life of an aspiring filmmaker in a lifeless Canadian suburb. It’s written and directed by prize-wining filmmaker, writer and movie critic Chandler Levack. 

I spoke with Chandler in Toronto via ZOOM.

I Like Movies opens on March 10, 2023.