Emerging Adulthood is Chaotic and Messy in Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks”

By: Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca

Grace Pine (played by Barbie Ferreira of Euphoria fame) is twenty-two in the year 2011, and she goes to indie rock concerts with a notepad in hand. While the crowds cheer wildly and sweat buckets around her, she scribbles down ideas for her next punchy article. She loves music passionately and excels at her work: critiquing new and hot music for a popular Toronto-based magazine under her editor, Jeff (played by Jay Baruchel). But music seems to be the only part of her life that’s established.

Grace still lives at home with her parents, her love life is less than stellar, she struggles to connect with other people, and she wants to do even more with her craft. She also finds the city of Toronto, where her peers seem to value monetary success more than the purity of art, creatively stifling. With no savings or job prospects, she decides to take a dramatic leap of faith and move to Montreal for the summer, where she anticipates a more free, bohemian lifestyle while she writes a book about Alanis Morissette. But reality has other ideas (mild spoilers ahead).

Earlier in April, Burlington-raised director Chandler Levack’s romantic comedy Mile End Kicks, a 112-minute film she both wrote and directed, was released in movie theatres throughout Canada. The official premiere of the film was on September 4, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), but now it is being screened for the wider public. Much like Levack’s first major feature, I Like Movies (on Netflix), Mile End Kicks has autobiographical qualities, based as it is on the director/writer’s twenty-something experiences as a freelance arts and culture reporter. It can even be considered something of a spiritual sequel to I Like Movies. I Like Movies is about an artistic and ambitious teenager (inspired by Levack’s own adolescence) who gets his first job at a media rental store. In Mile End Kicks, the same brand of protagonist has moved on to the next stage of life: young adulthood and even more responsibility.  

Ferreira, as Grace, does a convincing job playing an insecure early twenty-something who does not yet have a sense of her own identity. It’s a believable, messy, and chaotic performance. Grace feigns professional, social, and even sexual confidence, but is actually unsure of what she wants from her career or from a lover. She also hasn’t quite grasped the concept of being a grownup yet. She moves in with a cool French-speaking roommate, Madeleine (Juliette Gariépy), and operates under the assumption that paying rent is optional. Grace also gets involved with two men, a flaky eccentric named Chevy (Stanley Simons) and Chevy’s shyer but more sincere bandmate, Archie (Devon Bostick). Romantic tension ensues.

Under the guise of wanting to do publicity for their band Bone Patrol, Grace pursues Chevvy obsessively, virtually disappearing into an unsatisfactory love affair. Set in the early 2000s, Mile End Kicks chooses to depict the era’s dating world as complicated and not easy to navigate, as hookup culture is gaining prominence through the growing influence of the internet. The confusion of this new strand of sexuality, plus casual sexism towards women in journalism, does not do any favours for the state of Grace’s psyche. Audiences will watch Grace spiral, but they will also watch her subtly transition into maturity through a series of personal choices that involve learning to assert herself and growing into her greatest asset: her phenomenal writing talent.

The film’s storytelling is brutally, unapologetically honest about what working life is really like for a freelancer. Mile End Kicks demystifies the illusion of glamour that tends to surround fictional writers and artists. Carrie Bradshaw, writing a column in New York City, enjoys a luxurious lifestyle with reduced work hours; Grace Pine in Montreal does not. Freelance writing as a career choice actually entails panic-stricken deadlines, chasing payments from email-dodging clients, being frequently disrespected by editors and interviewees, and worst of all, high pressure from high expectations. Anyone who has done this kind of work will recognize in Grace’s meltdowns a familiar sensation, that of being overwhelmed to the point of complete emotional shutdown.

Mile End Kicks cinematography includes some stunning shots of the urban beauty of Montreal, a city with built-in personality and a lot of history. Those with a fondness for the gorgeous metropolis will appreciate the attention given to its architecture and its street art, which clearly comes from a place of affection from director Levack. Viewers may also recognize scenes with Toronto’s Front Street in front of Union Station, the number one place in all of Canada where people shoot off on trains and buses in search of new adventures. Grace chooses to get to Quebec by bus, savouring the long journey as much as the destination.

Levack’s script does get somewhat political with some throwaway lines about Anglo-French rivalry and colonization, but doesn’t fully adopt it as a theme or an angle for the plot. Grace’s immersion into French-Canadian culture isn’t necessarily hostile. Rather, it’s standard culture shock.

The film has steady pacing but includes a few awkwardly timed scene transitions. Due to a limited run time, it also underutilizes its fun supporting cast. Grace’s experiences of Montreal are populated with many interesting side characters who are musicians, artists, and poets, but their screentime is minimal. Isaiah Lehtinen, best known as the star of I Like Movies, appears as Bond Patrol band member Jesse, whose story arc about coming out as gay is introduced early but ultimately abandoned. Madeleine, a DJ with as much artistic passion and ambition as Grace, is also an intriguing presence whose scenes are mostly confined to orbiting around Grace. It makes one wonder if Mile End Kicks could have alternatively been a TV series, a setup which would have allowed these characters to be further developed. Perhaps Levack has something like it in mind for her next big project.

Mile End Kicks has moved on from its short run at the Burlington SilverCity on Brant Street and is now playing at other Cineplex Theatres. Burlingtonians can also support Chandler Levack’s output by watching her other recent film, Roommates, on Netflix. Burlington Local-News.ca’s review of Roommates can be found here.