‘Mile End Kicks’ (2025)

Following 20-something-year-old Grace (Barbie Ferreira) at the start of her career as a music critic, ‘Mile End Kicks’ follows the young adult as she moves from Toronto to Montreal for the summer. With big goals in mind, such as writing a 33 ⅓ book about Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill and learning French, Grace instead finds herself tangled with the members of an up-and-coming indie rock band Bone Patrol. Dealing with rejection from the friendly guitarist Archie (Devon Bostick) and pursuing the lead singer Chevy (Stanley Simons), Grace struggles to understand what she wants.

Having a familiar tone and period-accurate attire, the film successfully depicts the early 2010s by capturing the hipster vibes and non-serious atmosphere. Following Grace around as she familiarises herself with loft parties and learns to cope with social anxiety, writer and director Chandler Levack delivers a relaxed and non-hurried stroll down the creator’s semi-biographical story.

With easygoing Ferreira leading as Grace, the young woman makes her own way as she moves from Toronto in pursuit of self-discovery. With the story slowly revealing that Grace’s job in Toronto made her feel isolated, as she was mostly surrounded by white crusty guys and having had an affair with her boss, Grace’s journey is plagued by insecurity and indecision as she has previously not felt acceptance elsewhere.

Moving to Montreal and becoming involved with two members of the same band, Grace continues to struggle to find herself, all the while forgetting her commitments and avoiding her responsibilities when it comes to her work and other goals.

Following around a young adult who constantly and consistently makes the wrong decisions, Ferreira’s Grace is increasingly difficult to root for. Obviously, part of growing up and maturing into a well-formed adult does require learning some things the hard way. What proves most perplexing is the ease with which Grace abandons her career aspirations in favour of a muddled love triangle.

Being rejected by the much more likeable and friendly Archie for ‘personal reasons,’ Grace feels dejected and seems to go down what she believes is the only available avenue, namely Chevy. Pursuing the detached, charismatic but overall egocentric Chevy, Grace keeps veering towards and chasing affection from another equally confused young person who has yet to figure out what he wants.

Wanting to be a powerful statement about a young woman finding herself and her voice, ‘Mile End Kicks’ falters as it dwells too little on Grace righting her wrongs, tying everything up neatly within the last 5 minutes of the feature. Of course we’re shown the young adult’s struggles, but it is the time spent on Grace’s perpetual missteps that make the film feel like a slog, detracting from the point of her becoming a more confident and considerate individual.

In spite of more interesting characters lurking in the background, the film wobbles again where the narrative focuses too little on the supporting cast. With little time and effort devoted to further exploring the struggles the surrounding characters are going through, it becomes more difficult to understand their plight. With a crumb here or there, suggestions of other people’s lives are vaguely alluded to, but never really explored.

Suffering from a singular point of focus on an already unlikeable character, ‘Mile End Kicks’ may be hard for anyone who isn’t a woman in her early 20s to relate to. At times overtly sentimental and too full of clichés to take seriously, the film is very much a coming-of-age story where the protagonist fails to fully blossom into a cohesive and lovable self.

Score: 2/4