Critic

Can you blame a critic for wincing when a character pulls out a notepad in the middle of a concert? Cinematic depictions of criticism are usually withering at best, and pointedly personal at worst. Well, critics can exhale while watching “Mile End Kicks,” the sophomore feature from Canadian writer/director Chandler Levack. Levack, herself a former critic, is cynical about a few things, but the act of criticism isn’t one of them. 

Like her debut “I Like Movies,” Levack’s new film is based on her own life experiences, namely a summer she spent in Montreal as a young, aspiring writer trying to find herself. Her protagonist, Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira), goes through a similar arc, convincing herself — as so many young people do — that moving somewhere cooler will fix her life. She’s also telling everyone that she’s writing a book about Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill,” never mind that she has neither a book contract nor a first draft. Grace recently interned at an alt-weekly whose editor told her she had promise as a writer (more on that in a bit). But really, all she learned there is how snide and dismissive male rock critics can be toward younger women.

I don’t work there anymore, so it seems safe to divulge that my personal nickname for the circle of white male gatekeepers at the publication where I got my start was “the plaid dads.” And, as with the intricacies of stocking at a suburban video store in “I Like Movies,” “Mile End Kicks” gets the nuances of life as a young female music critic right. The scenarios are relatable — who among us has not anxiously ignored emails from an editor? — as are the conversations: The argument Grace interrupts, earning derisive laughter from her coworkers, is over the merits of different Hüsker Dü albums. 

“Mile End Kicks” is set in 2011, but it feels more like the late aughts — again, accurate — and the care put into the details of Grace’s world is evident from the opening credits, rendered in the modified Helvetica font of an American Apparel ad. The reference reoccurs in the movie’s most artfully shot scene, which follows Grace around a party with a spotlight on her face, moving along with her. The flat, bright light creates a vignette effect reminiscent of a Terry Richardson photograph, effectively evoking both the era and the sexual danger that came with it. 

“Mile End Kicks” is also specific to Montreal (look out for the Grimes lookalike, sniffing something off the rim of a toilet at a loft party), as well as Canada as a whole. One monologue in particular about the life cycle of a hip Canadian should slay with local audiences, although it rang true for someone from the American Midwest as well. 

“Red Rooms” star Juliette Gariépy brings a French-Canadian flair as Grace’s DJ roommate Madeline, who starts off thinking that this dorky Ontario transplant who doesn’t speak French is kind of adorable before losing her patience with Grace’s unpaid rent and brazen fridge-raiding. 

She’s not a particularly well-developed character; her role is to serve as a tour guide/sounding board/eventual lesson learned for our protagonist, which speaks to one of the weaker aspects of Levack’s film. 

Grace can be a frustrating protagonist, making foolish, self-sabotaging decisions in pursuit of fleeting pleasure and conditional approval from guys who, frankly, aren’t worth her time. But that’s just part of what makes her real. By comparison, some of the supporting characters, particularly (why mince words?) idiot fuckboy Chevy (Stanley Simmons), are slightly too exaggerated for the film’s realistic milieu. 

This is where Levack’s cynicism comes in: This is a movie that can’t believe how dumb smart women act when there’s a man putting in the absolute bare minimum involved. This sentiment comes across most clearly in a sex scene that’s both funny and essential to the plot, as the terminally indifferent Chevy literally just lies there while a confused Grace does all the work. 

By comparison, his romantic rival Archie (Devon Bostick) is a weirdo, but a more believable one, and Bostick’s banter with Ferreira has a specific kind of romantic chemistry common to hyperintelligent, socially awkward nerds. But again, while it may be a byproduct of the self-absorbed protagonist’s point of view, the lives and motivations of each of these characters outside of being two guys in the same band vying for the same woman’s attention remain unconsidered. Then again, it’s kind of refreshing to have men playing the one-dimensional love interests in a movie for once. 

At times, “Mile End Kicks” seems to be reaching for a broader, more heightened style of comedy à la an ‘80s teen sex romp. Some of these jokes are funny, but the shifts in tone are sudden, and it takes a few beats for the film to recover every time. However, the fact that she can pull them off at all speaks well for the movie Levack is currently making with Adam Sandler — applied consistently over the course of an entire film, she could quite successfully direct something quite silly. 

The poignant bits, meanwhile, are consistently on point. A #MeToo-inspired office storyline (that’s the issue with her old editor, played contemptibly by Jay Baruchel) fits in better here than a similar subplot in “I Like Movies,” perhaps because it’s being experienced by the protagonist herself. It also gives us the film’s most heartrending moment, as Grace, who’s the last one in the office as usual, waves her arms to keep the motion-sensor lights on, crying the whole time.

Ferreira is a believable and sympathetic protagonist, bringing a vulnerability to Grace that makes the viewer root for her even as she blows up her life for reasons even she doesn’t seem to understand. She wants to be a critic, but she also desperately wants to be liked. The tension between those modes is gendered, as Grace recognizes when she finally writes something that she believes in late in the film. (It also helps that Grace, via Levack, is actually a good writer.) Navigating that tension is something you learn with experience — the topic of Chandler Levack’s next movie, perhaps? 

Grade: B

“Mile End Kicks” premiered at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

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