Mile End Kicks

Directed by Chandler Levack, Mile End Kicks follows a fledgling writer (Barbie Ferreira’s Grace) as she moves to Montreal to pen a book and subsequently grows close to a pair of musicians. Filmmaker Levack, armed with her own screenplay, does a terrific job of initially establishing the quirky central character and her promising exploits, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the compelling atmosphere is heightened by Levack’s authentic approach and a first-class lead performance – with Ferreira’s believable turn matched by solid periphery players like Jay Baruchel and Devon Bostick. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Mile End Kicks slowly-but-surely wears out its welcome as it progresses into its meandering, repetitive midsection, with the ongoing emphasis on Grace’s tentative relationship with Stanley Simons’ comically awful Chevy accelerates the picture’s downward trajectory (ie the character is painted with a hopelessly broad brush that’s impossible to overlook or ignore). By the time the eye-rollingly didactic final stretch rolls around, which somehow makes the third act of Barbie look subtle by comparison, Mile End Kicks has confirmed its place as a woeful misfire that rarely, if ever, approaches the highs of Levack’s superior debut feature, I Like Movies.

** out of ****