On the bedroom wall of Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira) hangs a prominent poster of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, a choice by Chandler Levack that openly signals both her affection for that film and her wish to craft her own version of it. Like Crowe, Levack again turns to her past, this time following a Toronto music critic who escapes to Montreal. As her sophomore feature, coming after I Like Movies which also drew directly from her life, what should we call this? Is this a sequel, a spin-off, or the start of the Chandler Levack cinematic multiverse?
Grace decides to spend a summer in Montreal in 2011, hoping to gather inspiration for a book on Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill while also chasing some fun on the side. Through her roommate, a childhood friend, she meets the indie rock band Bone Patrol, where her involvement grows both professionally as a publicist and personally with more than one of its members.
Going into the film, I was curious to see how Levack would follow up her autobiographical first feature. In my still brief years watching Canadian cinema, the personal coming-of-age film is by far the most common, usually with multicultural families at the center, which is not the case here. Given the attention, even if a little unfair, that she received for I Like Movies, I wondered if Levack would push herself into new territory. Instead, Mile End Kicks feels like more of the same. She refines her voice, making a film that feels more polished this time, but she also leans harder into the shortcomings of her debut.
There are two major problems. The first is how disjointed the script feels, shifting its focus as it goes. The film sets up a clear premise with the book project, but once it serves its purpose of getting Grace to Montreal, it is abandoned. That is a shame, since I found Alanis Morissette’s story more interesting than Grace’s. By the end the film tries to remind us of that thread, but it is no substitute for a satisfying conclusion. What remains feels like fragments of the director’s past loosely stitched together. The second problem is the protagonist herself, who proves even harder to spend time with than her predecessor. Grace is abrasive and self absorbed in ways that quickly make the film a test of patience. Lawrence in I Like Movies was a troubled teenager coping with grief, and his harshness carried a tragic edge. It did not make him easier to watch, but it made sense. Grace, on the other hand, is an adult who mistreats her generous roommate, delays rent, ignores any event that is not beneficial to herself, and dismisses a boy who genuinely cares for her while pining for another who does not. Her big breakthrough hinges on asking for an invoice, yet Barbie Ferreira plays the character with such careless arrogance that it feels unconvincing she would ever let it slip for so long in the first place. Truly uncompelling stuff.
Credit where it is due. Levack captures Montreal’s lifestyle and its contrast with Toronto with detail and clear affection, making the city’s culture feel empathetic and inviting. She also maintains her gift for portraying even the smallest characters as real people. A minor bandmate, for example, is given a dimension since it is mentioned that he has just come out, or a character that invites Grace to read poetry who also seems to live outside of just getting the character to execute that one action.
Still, this authenticity is undercut by the way everything orbits Grace’s unconvincing arc. Levack has the eye and ear for real human behavior, but next time I hope she surrounds it with a story and a protagonist we actually want to spend time with.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future.
Still courtesy of TIFF.