There are a few things I appreciated about writer/director Levack's Mile End Kicks. As an anglo who lived in Montreal I related to a lot of the references, as someone who has fallen for the wrong people at certain times in our lives (who hasn't) I could feel for Grace no matter how many bad decisions she made, but most of all I loved the way Levack upends the structure of a rom-com to tell a different story.
Mile End Kicks is set up like a regular romantic comedy. Young woman building her career is positioned between the handsome bad boy who is all wrong for her and the more relatable, but still handsome enough, good boy who we know she'll end up with in the end. But that is just her jumping off point. Instead of letting that play out she uses this to tell the story of Grace who is deeply screwed up herself, and fumbling her way to a sort of rock bottom to start putting herself back together. In most ways the boys are just the afterthought, things to move her through her own journey.
Mile End Kicks does a great job of creating Grace as a fully rounded and deeply flawed character. Ferreira's performance is delightful with her big almost silly smile and character glasses masking all that disastrous choices she is making. I loved the humanity she brought to her. Grace could easily be a very unlikeable character but in Levack's and Ferreira's hands she is so painfully relatable. You end up rooting for her despite how much you want to figuratively smack her like Cher in Moonstruck; "snap out of it!"
My main nitpick is the end which feels like it gets all wrapped up a little too easily. Perhaps I'm being hard on it. The film does imply she still has a lot to work with, but some of the resolution felt a bit rushed. Still, the romance here is with a time in our lives when we're messy and flawed and figuring it all out and that part is something that is easy to love.
Mile End Kicks
Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Devon Bostick, Stanley Simons, Jay Baruchel
Writer/Director: Chandler Levack
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