I LIKE MOVIES
“'I Like Movies’ is based on my experiences working at a Blockbuster Video in Burlington, Ontario in the early 2000s,” said Toronto writer and director Chandler Levack.
It’s the story of how movie obsessive Lawrence Kweller (Isaiah Lehtinen) allows his love of film, dream of attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and anxiety alienate the most important people in his life.
Part work-place comedy—think “High Fidelity” only set in a video store—part character study, “I Like Movies” is sweet-natured, funny film that digs deep to make us feel empathy for Lawrence, a socially awkward character who hides his real feelings behind a facade of bluster and pretension.
Strong performances and a genuinely heartfelt script make this take on adolescent angst a winning debut for Levack.
THE SWIMMERS
There has never been a sports drama with this level of adversity. Set against a background of war-torn Syria, “The Swimmers” tells the incredible and true story of Yusra and Sara Mardini, sisters who fled Damascus to find a new life and a chance at competing in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
The harrowing story of survival that includes a dangerous voyage in a small lifeboat, packed with refugees across the Mediterranean Sea, is inspiring, even if it gives into its more conventional nature in the third act. T
he sisters’ story is, by turns, heartwarming, suspenseful and traumatic. It becomes more of a traditional sports movie, à la “Rocky,” near the end, but until that point, director Sally El-Hosaini tells the true story of with sensitivity and visual aplomb.
Unforgettable shots of a bomb landing in a swimming pool or a beach, littered with tens of thousands of discarded lifejackets, left behind by refugees on their way to a new future, speak loudly and are worth the price of admission.
MOONAGE DAYDREAM
Director Brett Morgen’s film emphasizes the restless spirit that defined David Bowie, but don’t buy a ticket expecting a cradle-to-grave, behind the music style expose.
There is no mention of Angela, Bowie’s first wife, manager Tony Defries or the mountain of cocaine that decorated his nostrils in the 1970s. Instead, Morgen has created an experience, a collage of sound and vision that, over the two-and-a-quarter-hour running time, creates a portrait that doesn’t attempt to define the artist as much as it does to illuminate his ever-changing philosophical mindset.
To achieve this, Morgen mixes never-before-seen footage and performances, 40 remastered songs spanning the singer’s entire career and, as narration, excerpts from 50 years of Bowie interviews.
