Coming-of-age films are one of the easiest ways to connect an audience to a story. Whether you’re reaching adolescence or retirement, people change at different ages of life, sometimes in the most unexpected places. Films like Is This Thing On?, Dazed and Confused and Lady Bird have done masterful jobs at seeing characters go through major changes in their lives. In an age where thousands of films are released yearly, it is difficult to see a wholly unique take on the coming-of-age tale. Luckily for us, writer/director Chandler Levack is here to deliver an entirely new experience, using music and romance as the driving force of the coming-of-age story.

Mile End Kicks has striking similarities to the average romance film, following a young woman who moves to a new town in order to restart her life, where she meets new friends and sparks an awkward love triangle with two members of the same band. On the surface, Mile End Kicks sounds like the straight-to-streaming romance film that most studios would dump as a means to promote new content, but Levack makes it apparent that this story is more than worthy of being told.

Part of what makes the film such an effective coming-of-age romance is that the film is based on Levack’s life as a young music critic. The way she captures how music can devour someone’s life, both positively and negatively, through the protagonist, Grace, makes for an always captivating experience. The film interprets music as both a means of escapism and a way to understand life, which leads Grace into her relationships with Archie and Chevy. Chevy is an extreme egotist, and everyone tells Grace to avoid him at all costs, but her love for music drives her toward him. One could almost parallel this situation to those who love Roman Polanski. Although he’s a notoriously terrible person, his numerous high-quality films have made him a beloved figure in the film industry. This type of conflict worked perfectly for the film and beautifully contributed to its coming-of-age message.

The film is also a wonderful ode to Montreal culture. From the strong sense of community to the divide between the French and Canadians, Levack expertly delivers what life was like in Montreal in 2011. There have been many films set in Canada, but Mile End Kicks is the rare film that truly feels like a Canadian film, in both how it captures its people and how it shoots its environments, which makes sense that it had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. While the film touches on universal experiences, it successfully serves as a chamber piece about a culture that is rarely depicted in film.

Maybe it’s the inner writer in me, but Grace’s development was endlessly watchable and relatable. Portraying a writer herself, Barbie Ferreira excellently portrays the difficulties of finding her own voice in writing while telling someone else’s story. However, as excellent as she is, the writing is where Grace shone the most. Like many adults in their early 20s, Grace makes a plethora of mistakes, but the film does a good job of explaining what led her to each decision, sparking moments of empathy where there normally wouldn’t be. Her journey to find autonomy during a time of major gender disparity made for an extremely compelling experience, especially during the final moments, when she finally fights against her oppressors. Even though she made numerous poor decisions and negatively affected the people in her life, the character was strong enough to make me care. The idea of seeing someone at their lowest and still being endeared to them is hard to achieve, but it occurs in Mile End Kicks.

Although the film focuses heavily on how music can impact humanity, it is easy to draw comparisons to other art forms. Whether it’s movies or paintings, art can be a driving force in people’s lives. This is wonderfully depicted throughout Mile Ends Kicks, with examples including playing music during sex scenes and ditching your job to see a musician. The two main relationships stem from their shared love of music, even though Grace and Chevy also have ulterior motives. Movies that celebrate art can sometimes come across as schmaltzy, but Mile End Kicks does so in an authentic and nuanced manner.

The true heart of the film doesn’t just come from the writing’s celebration of music and culture, but from Devon Bostick’s Archie. Archie serves as a spiritual successor to Rodrick Heffley, a musician who has outgrown his childhood dreams of becoming a rock star and now fully understands the world around him and his role in it. This makes for moments of wonderful chemistry with Ferreira’s Grace, who is dealing with the issues that Archie has mastered. The fact that he dealt with similar issues to Grace in the past makes their relationship all the stronger, and Bostick’s charismatic, lovable performance makes the character all the more likable.

On paper, Mile End Kicks should not work nearly as well as it does, but its layered screenplay and the ensemble’s compelling performances make it one of the must-watch movies of 2026 so far. It may have its moments of awkward tension, but then again, what is life without its awkwardness? Despite its small budget and limited release, this is bound to be a movie that sticks with me throughout the year.

Mile End Kicks is now playing in select theaters.

Rating: 9/10

Oscar Prospects:

None