SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
When 22-year old music critic Grace Pine (played by Barbie Ferreira) decides to write a book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill album, she decides to move from Toronto to Montreal for inspiration. Through an ad on Craigslist, she rents a room in Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood from Madeleine (Juliette Gariépy), a DJ, and her live-in boyfriend Hugo (Robert Naylor), a drummer. Thanks to a recommendation by her old boss, Grace lands a Skype meeting with a New York City publisher who likes her book idea and offers her a contract as well as a $500 advance. To celebrate, she goes to a loft party where Madeleine is DJ’ing and Hugo’s band, Bone Patrol, is playing. There, she connects with guitarist Archie (Devon Bostick) but swoons over Bone Patrol front man Chevy (Stanley Simons). In an effort to get Chevy’s romantic attention, she offers to write a review on the band by interviewing him. Knowing they could use the attention, he agrees to the interview but it doesn’t turn out to be the quasi-date that Grace wanted. Instead, he’s invited her to a rehearsal so the entire band expects to be interviewed and, once again, she connects with Archie the most. Blinded by her infatuation with Chevy, she continuously humiliates herself in desperate efforts to get his attention, all while ignoring her book and financial responsibilities until that behavior forces her to lose sight of why she took the risk to come to Montreal in the first place.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Written and directed by Chandler Levack (who also directed ROOMMATES for Netflix earlier this year), she uses Jagged Little Pill as a compass. From “You Learn” to “Head Over Feet” to “Not the Doctor” to “All I Really Want,” Morissette’s coming-of-age lyrical content from 30 years ago runs throughout MILE END KICKS. It’s a creative stroke that’s far easier to think of than it is to actually pull off and Levack deserves a lot of credit.
Pastiche aside, this comedy isn’t all that comedic. Sure, there are some humorous situations and a handful of funny dialogue but there are some action, heist and superhero movies that contain more laughs than this. As a whole, it doesn’t deliver on its genre and that’s disappointing.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t good, however.
There are loads of relatable character arcs that’ll have you thinking about life lessons you learned back in the day. The real power of MILE END KICKS is it’s heart, all delivered by Ferreira. The viewer actively roots for her to figure it all out before it’s too late and does so despite knowing that Grace’s impulse, callow and ambivalence are getting in the way of her own success. Sure, Chevy is an awful human but we, as audience members, have all encountered a Chevy (or 10) in our lives and see right through his holier-than-thou wanna be artistry. It’s Grace who is both the protagonist and antagonist in this story, a feather both Levack and Ferreira should proudly wear in their caps.
While MILE END KICKS doesn’t call for the same emotional range as BOB TREVINO LIKES IT, Ferreira proves, once again, that she’s one of her generation’s greatest actors. She effortlessly grows the lead character from a timid, socially awkward and unsure writer into a confident, aware and emotionally mature woman in front of our eyes. Carrying the tag of comedy does MILE END KICKS a disservice, however, as it’s simultaneously so much more than that and not enough of it.
JKG SCORE: 7.0 out of 10
Untitled Film Project 