Movie · 2026 · Comedy, Romance, Music, Drama · 1h 52m · R · English
Curator score: 5.1/10 (22.1K ratings)
Welcome to the summer of 2011.
Overview
Grace Pine, a 24-year-old music critic, moves to Montreal to write a book on Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, but her plans are complicated when she becomes romantically involved with two members of an indie band she is covering and decides to become their publicist.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.1/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.32/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 77
TMDB: 5.3/10
Director
Chandler Levack
Production
Zapruder Films, Banner House Productions, XYZ Films, IPR.VC, Rhombus Media
Cast
Barbie Ferreira, Devon Bostick, Stanley Simons, Juliette Gariépy, Jay Baruchel, Robert Naylor, Isaiah Lehtinen, Aurora Browne, Alain Goulem, Sabrina Jalees, Pat Kiely, Emma Cheuk, Brent Skagford, Nicolas Wright, Martin Besnard Jean, Emily Lê, Micheala Snoyer, Audrey Ann Boucher, Magi Merlin, Laura Mota-Juang
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, funny, and emotionally specific indie rom-com about music criticism, ambition, and messy desire. It sounds especially appealing if you like culture-scene comedies with a strong sense of place, a great soundtrack, and a lead character whose professional and romantic lives keep colliding.
Best for
viewers who like witty indie romantic comedies
fans of music-scene stories and critic/protagonist setups
people drawn to coming-of-age stories about work, identity, and self-invention
audiences who enjoy Montreal-set or early-2010s cultural nostalgia
Skip if
you want a broad, high-energy mainstream comedy
you dislike love-triangle plots
you prefer stories with clean moral boundaries and low cringe
you are not interested in music-industry or arts-world dynamics
Overview
Mile End Kicks looks like a smart, sharply observed rom-com that uses the music world as more than decoration. The setup gives it built-in tension: a critic trying to write seriously about a formative album while getting pulled into the very scene she is supposed to be covering. That kind of professional-romantic collision can be a great engine for comedy, embarrassment, and self-discovery.
Worth noting
What stands out most is the specificity. The reviews suggest a lived-in portrait of early-2010s indie culture, with enough detail to make the setting feel emotionally true rather than merely nostalgic. It also seems to understand the awkwardness of wanting proximity to art, status, and coolness while still needing rent money and a stable sense of self.
Bottom line
If it lands for you, it should land hard: funny, a little chaotic, and more empathetic than cynical. The movie appears to be strongest when it treats its characters as confused but recognizable people rather than as punchlines, which is exactly what gives this kind of music-biz romance its bite.
Top Letterboxd reviews
⋆˚꩜｡ ɱαԃᎥ (3.5★) · 2298 likes
When u wanna kiss oral herpe huzz but u already hit his walkie talkie yart so it doesn’t matter at this point
brokebacker4ever (4★) · 2156 likes
Rodrick STILL rules !!!!!!!!
davidehrlich · 1503 likes
FINALLY, a movie about how life-altering it was to hear Joanna Newsom's "Have One on Me" for the first time.
so funny and knowing and true, rom-com of the year with a bullet and a killer soundtrack to boot. wonderful wonderful film.
Amanda the Jedi (4★) · 1342 likes
Not the central point of the movie, but I love how at the end of the day, we're all just trying to get away from where we're from. The thought of kids from Toronto feeling the need to escape would have been absurd to me as a Maritime high schooler wanting to escape TO Toronto.
Some of my favorite film makers are people finding ways to package moments and emotions from their lives into these perfect coming-of-age capsules. Levack is… more
phoebe🌙 (4★) · 1017 likes
a movie so powerfully situated in the year 2011 that a pair of Toms platform cork wedges are heavily featured