Never stop making these. Twentysomethings trying to figure out their lives in a big city has high volatility for success, I understand that. But the best versions of these movies become at worst cultural touchstones and at best timeless tales that young men recreate in their trips to Vienna hoping to meet their Celines. Mile End Kicks isn’t quite at the Before Sunrise level, but it’s closer to that than it isn’t, and really sold the sh*t out of Montreal as the new music hub of North America, whether I believe it or not.
Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira) is a music critic working under Jeff (Jay Baruchel), but feels stuck. A suburban Toronto girl, Grace’s Alanis Morrisette loving youth draws her to Montreal where the real artists are crafting their music and she can write her Jagged Little Pill book. She gets a 2nd floor spiral entryway apartment with her French-Canadian roommate Madeleine (Juliette Gariépy). Madeleine’s aspiring DJ career, and her tumultuous boyfriend Hugo (Robert Naylor) lead Grace to the Montreal loft party scene, where she becomes enamored with Hugo’s band Bone Patrol. She has great convos with the self-celibate but charming Archie (Devon Bostick), but is smitten with Chevy (Stanley Simons), the lead singer and aspiring creative force of a new transcendent indie rock movement…while selling shoes at Mile End Kicks.
And that’s the joy of this movie, a fusion of two Cameron Crowe classics Singles and Almost Famous. Watching the driven but reluctant Grace wide eyed excitement at her summer of creativity and reinvention is the joy that all young adults feel when their lives are about to start. There’s endless opportunities (or 5 summer goals on a notes app) to experience all sorts of new things to figure out what you want to be. Along the ride with Grace are equally messy twentysomethings going through their own personal growths. If you hit your 30s, you’ll recognize the projection games instantly: Chevy’s so insistent in his own importance that Grace’s simple questioning sends him spiraling like a house of cards. Madeleine has to figure out career vs Hugo conflicts, with Grace as her sounding board. Archie is the most together…except his insistence on NOT talking about his ex girlfriend that emotionally destroyed him. All this discovery is backdropped by the audience’s discovery of the Montreal music scene. Chandler Levack clearly has walked Grace’s path herself, giving incredible specificity to her personal tale. The Loft parties are wonderfully crafted: 20 year olds would KILL to be a part of them, while the aging adults see that who’s next to you, talking to you is more important than who’s on stage. Juxtaposing this with the mundanity and sometimes despondent day to day living to keep yourself afloat hoping you’ll make it gives a wonderful urgency to Mile End Kicks that hits something very universal about adult rites of passage.
And in Barbie Ferreria Chandler Levack found the perfect navigator for this life. Ferreria makes whatever she’s in better, and excels again getting top billing carrying this movie herself. Grace’s journey is wonderfully flawed: no twenty something I know had a linear path to their eventual life trajectory. The temptations of Montreal living flood through Grace’s personal cracks, which Barbie layers into the performance, merging her outer new bravado and inner distrust as the two become one when the mistakes get too great. And yet, we’re not mad at her: we’re covering our eyes, hoping against hope Grace’ll make a better decision than she does. Jay Baruchel’s presence gives Mile End Kicks his Canadian blessing, but he’s just a supporting role here: this is a movie for the kids. Devon Bostick and Stanley Simons have fun with the two band member archetypes girls like; Bostick is sweet and easygoing, while Simons is a husk with some musical talent, the Montreal equivalent of the guy in the dorm who invites you into his room to hear his rendition of “Wonderwall.”
2026 looks like it’s gonna be Canada’s year at the movies! Mile End Kicks is a winner, and despite what Grace and all would say about Toronto, Nirvanna the Band is killing it at the Rialto theater while doing a little time travel on the way there. Keep the creative energies coming neighbors! I haven’t been this excited for Canadian fare since the poutine I ate at Dear Margaret, the Canadian restaurant in Chicago.