I Like Movies

I Like Movies: Indie Video Store Flick With Enough Real-Life Drama for a Franchise

The awkward Canadian film-bro comedy you love is quietly sitting on a powder keg of real-world drama: sexual assault allegations, savage fan reviews, Adam Sandler swooping in like a fairy godfather, and an audition story worthy of its own coming‑of‑age film. Roll the tape.

Scandals & Controversies

The Percy Hynes White Fallout That Hit After the Movie Dropped

• Percy Hynes White, who plays loyal best friend Matt in I Like Movies, was accused on Twitter in early 2023 of sexual assault and of throwing parties where he and friends allegedly supplied alcohol and drugs to underage girls in order to have sex with them .
• The original Twitter thread (since deleted) alleged that he pursued and abused underage girls and assaulted multiple people at parties in Toronto ^[1].
• White later responded on Instagram, calling it a “campaign of misinformation” and insisting “the rumors are false,” saying the online storm led to his family being doxxed and his friends receiving death threats ^[1].
• Entertainment outlets covering the fallout repeatedly tagged him as “the I Like Movies star” while reporting on the controversy and on his future in Netflix’s Wednesday .
• The film itself was shot and released before the allegations surfaced, but the scandal now hangs over one of the movie’s most likable characters.

Casting Chaos & Audition Tea

300+ Auditions and One Lighthouse T‑Shirt to Rule Them All

• Director Chandler Levack and casting director Jesse Griffiths held a Canada‑wide search for Lawrence, sifting through more than 300 self‑tapes .
• Isaiah Lehtinen was one of the last actors to audition — and he walked in wearing a T‑shirt for The Lighthouse. Levack instantly clocked him as “speaking my language,” and his quiet, sincere take on Lawrence was richer than what she’d written ^[3].
• Levack later admitted that many of the movie’s sharpest, funniest lines are pure Lehtinen ad‑lib. A lot of Lawrence’s chaotic film‑bro energy? Straight from the actor’s own instincts on set ^[3].

Romina D’Ugo Was Not Cast to Be a Manic-Pixie Video-Store Girl

• Romina D’Ugo’s audition as Alana was described by Levack as “so specific and incredible,” with D’Ugo using her dance background to add physical comedy and presence that went way beyond “older manager crush” ^[3].
• Behind the scenes, Levack was adamant that Alana not be reduced to a muse; casting D’Ugo was about making sure the character could hold the film emotionally — and not just be the guy’s lesson of the week ^[3].

On-Set Secrets & Video Store Necromancy

Built From a Dead Blockbuster’s Bones

• The film’s painfully accurate early‑2000s video store isn’t just good production design — it’s borderline séance. The team sourced shelving and fixtures from an actual shuttered rental store to build their set, layering it with era‑perfect props and signage to mimic Levack’s own teen years working at Blockbuster .
• Levack has said she’s been living with the Lawrence character since 2018, drawing directly from what she calls one of the loneliest periods of her life as a teenage clerk, then weaponizing that memory into cringe comedy ^[3].
• The whole project was shepherded through Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program — meaning this intensely personal nostalgia trip was also a calling card for the next wave of Canadian indie film ^[3].

Sandler, Cinephiles & the Cinderella Call

Adam Sandler Randomly Becomes the Film’s Biggest Fanboy

• Out of nowhere, Levack got word that Adam Sandler had watched I Like Movies — and liked it so much he wanted to talk. When the phone rang, it was Sandler himself telling her, in classic Sandler cadence: “This is Adam Sandler and I f--king loved I Like Movies, man, that’s a really good f--king movie” .
• That fan call spiraled into Levack being flown first‑class to Beverly Hills to discuss a script Sandler had for her, and eventually into her directing Netflix projects connected to Sandler’s orbit ^[5][6].
• Translation: Lawrence Kweller’s unhealthy Sandler worship in the movie literally manifested as real‑life career magic for the director.

Fan Reactions, Film-Bro Discourse & Review-Reading Meltdowns

“Lady Bird for Incels” and Other Savage Takes

• Levack and Lehtinen sat down with Letterboxd to read real viewer reviews of the movie — on camera. Lehtinen confessed he obsessively checks reviews “on the toilet, at work, when I’m feeling sad,” calling the habit “masturbatory” .
• One reviewer snarked, “did they let this kid direct it too?” prompting Levack to blurt out, half laughing, half crying: “I spent five years of my life making this movie” while Lehtinen cackled beside her ^[7].
• Another Letterboxd user described I Like Movies as “kinda like Licorice Pizza for people who want to kill themselves,” which Levack called her “favorite review” ever — the sort of perfectly unhinged pull‑quote only the internet can provide ^[7].

Is It Critiquing Film Bros… Or Just One of Them?

• In interviews, Levack has been frank that the movie is her attempt, as a woman and ex‑critic, to dismantle the “toxic film bro” archetype from the inside, giving Lawrence a path to growth instead of glorifying his entitlement ^[3].
• Critics and fans have debated whether the film nails that balance. Some praise the empathy and the way Lawrence’s arc is driven by the women around him; others argue that centering yet another obnoxious male cinephile — no matter how self‑aware — is its own kind of indulgence ^[8].
• Either way, the discourse has helped keep this tiny Canadian dramedy in the conversation well beyond its modest release.