Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Morgan went to San Antonio on Friday and is going to be gone for the next ten days, so you know what that means: I’m going to the theater five times this week, and no one can stop me! First up was my first of two trips to the AMC in Grapevine (tomorrow I’ll be there to see Speed Racer in IMAX) for Mile End Kicks, which from all angles presented itself as “2010s Canadian Almost Famous”. Of course, I was game, but I doubted that Mile End Kicks could play on the same level as its inspiration. I was right, though I still enjoyed this movie.

I laughed at and loved the idea of the 2010s music scene being “old” and worthy of the film treatment, and the time was recreated pretty well. I wasn’t in my 20s at the time, but I still loved seeing the old iPhones and MacBooks, and magazines being relevant was fun as well. I also enjoyed a few of the performances—Barbie Ferreira was solid—but my favorite had to be Devon Bostick. He played easily the most morally straight character in the story, but his quiet and sensitive side was quite the welcome departure from Rodrick, which had to be the last time I saw him in such a prominent role (did you know Rodrick Rules has a 3.8 on Letterboxd? I just learned that).

Unfortunately, solid production design and Devon Bostick couldn’t save Mile End Kicks from coming up short of its superior in most areas. The story suffered for me because of a couple things. The lack of an age gap between Grace and the band made their dynamic less interesting—more romantic and sexual, obviously, but how many times have we seen that?—and the band’s trajectory made following them less captivating. I also didn’t love how Grace’s arc was written, because by the ending, it felt like she hadn’t learned anything. Sure, she broke up with the bad boy and paid her landlord friend back, but she was still kind of a shitty person. I’m fine with a main character ending up in the same place that they started, but I’d want them to arrive there with some added maturity, and it didn’t seem like Grace had changed at all.

While I would easily watch a hundred more aggressively Canadian movies written or produced by Matt Johnson (I had no idea he was an EP on this until I saw his name in the opening credits), Mile End Kicks didn’t quite land for me. With some better music and character development, I could’ve seen myself really enjoying this one, but it was still worth seeing, if just for the triumphant return of my Rodrick, Devon Bostick. It was never going to reach the level of Almost Famous, but it’ll settle for Almost Almost Famous. I’m pumped to be back at that theater tomorrow for Speed Racer, though; I’m hoping it’s as peak as some have told me it is. Sure looks like a crazy one.