MILE END KICKS Review

Messy, lost and broke are three ways to sum up being in your twenties. It's a time of confusion as you graduate from being a kid into young adulthood, forcing you to snap out of this carefree nature. Everywhere you look, it seems everyone has it together, and you are falling apart. This is how we meet Grace (Barbie Ferreira), living with her parents, unemployed, but determined to prove everyone wrong. 

A music critic with over 400 articles written at Spin Magazine, Grace is looking to establish herself in the industry. It seems Grace has everything lined up for her until one night when working closely with her boss (Jay Baruchel), he crosses the line, and Grace is forced to quit her job and start fresh. Telling nobody what happened between her and her boss, Grace makes the sudden choice to pack up her life in Toronto and move to Montreal. 

Filled with underground music and artists trying to find themselves, Grace makes a list of goals to achieve once she arrives in Montreal. Of course, learning French is number one, as Grace stopped learning the language after the pizza unit in school back in Toronto. Number two is to have real sex, to make up for her poor experience with her boss. Making Grace’s final goal to start working on a book about Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill. Relating to Morissette’s anger, Grace sees herself in the Canadian artist and wishes to be noticed by her peers. Grace sees how women are pushed to the sidelines in male-dominated industries, like music, but like Morissette, she wants people to see and hear her.

Moving into a walk-up apartment with her new Quebecois roommate, Madeleine (Julliette Gariepy). A DJ with cool clothes and an unhealthy relationship with her boyfriend, Hugo (Robert Naylor), Madeline is just as dysfunctional as Grace, but is better at hiding it. Together, the roommates go to loft parties, poetry readings, and Madeleine introduces Grace to the people that fall in her social circles. That is how Grace meets Bone Patrol.

The most pompous band to exist in 2011, Bone Patrol is a Montreal indie band that has one native Quebecois member, two members from Edmonton, and one from P.E.I. An amalgamation of trying too hard but at the same time pretending not to care. Bone Patrol slips into the inflexions of shoegaze, and Grace is mesmerised. Ignoring Madeleine's warning that the lead singer, Chevy (Stanley Simons), is the worst guy in Montreal, Grace falls headfirst in love with him. Prioritising Chevy’s success and the band, Grace puts aside her goals of learning French, having meaningful sex and finishing her book. Rather than working through her trauma, Grace chooses to self-destruct. 

Looking for outside validation leads Grace to make a series of poor decisions. Offered a book deal at the beginning of her stay in Montreal, Grace loses out on the opportunity because she can not make her deadline. With no job, Grace becomes two months behind in rent and consistently eats Madeline’s groceries without asking, creating a rift between the roommates. Grace finally has sex with Chevy, checking it off her goals, but he just uses her for his own pleasure. Completely lost, Grace does not know what to do. 

Does Grace make all the right choices? No, but that is what being young is about. You are allowed to mess up and get back up again. When you are in your twenties, nothing goes to plan, and Mile End Kicks displays that perfectly. Grace is not a flawless protagonist, but she is a complex one. Despite all that is thrown at Grace over the course of the film, she comes out stronger than ever. Sometimes you might make a fool of yourself, but if you have the power to be resilient and courageous, you too will be like Grace and survive your twenties.

🍿 SCORE = 86/100