This is the good things, people. Too usually on this job, we’re handled to splendidly contemporary, humorous, heartfelt movies after which have to, effectively, simply form of sit on our sterling suggestions till they’re launched to mass audiences. Such is commonly the case at festivals, the place infinite new movies are on supply, and just a few of them ever get something resembling distribution.
Fortunately, that’s not the case with Chandler Levack‘s winning and wise “Mile End Kicks,” which premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (where it was one of my favorites) and will have its U.S. premiere at SXSW later this month. IndieWire contributor Katie Rife likened it to an indie “Almost Famous,” and she’s useless on there.
Per the film‘s official logline, it follows “a 24-year-old music critic [who] gets romantically involved with members of an indie band she decides to publicize, set against Montreal’s indie music scene in 2011.” The movie stars Barbie Ferreira, Devon Bostick, Stanley Simons, Juliette Gariépy, and Jay Baruchel.
When I spoke to Levack before the film’s premiere, the Canadian filmmaker (and former music critic!) opened up about her personal experiences and the way a lot Ferrerira’s Grace is definitely primarily based on her. “I wrote this a decade ago when I was 27, and only maybe three or four years removed from the experiences that I’m talking about in the film,” Levack mentioned. “At that time, I felt like I just kind of had never written anything that actually felt like me. I had made a lot of music videos, and I’d made a short film, but I was like, OK, I’m going to spend a month, and I’m going to write this screenplay.”
She additionally hailed her actress, who provides a career-defining efficiency within the charming movie. “She is extraordinary, and she really gave her whole heart and soul to the performance,” Levack mentioned. “She learned a Canadian accent with a voice coach! I can’t imagine anyone else doing this part now. Not only is she an incredible romantic heroine, kind of in the tradition of Bridget Jones, she’s so authentic and raw.”
During the course of the movie, Grace offers with life, love (together with a pair of paramours from the identical band), skilled disappointments, and the fallout of a horrible expertise from her previous. Part rom-com, half coming-of-age story, the movie is vivid and humorous and horny and unhappy, the form of factor that would solely be made by somebody who lived via a lot of what her heroine encounters. You can get a robust style of all of that within the movie’s first trailer beneath.
Sumerian Pictures will launch “Mile End Kicks” in theaters on Friday, April 17.
