I had the chance to attend the world premiere of this at TIFF. I was curious about this considering Chandler Levack’s rising status as one of the Canadian filmmakers to look out for coming off of the success of I Like Movies, her previous debut film.
I can say that I preferred this to I Like Movies. For starters our main protagonist Grace seemed like a real human being and less obnoxious in terms of her behavior in contrast to Lawrence, whose attitude towards life and art really put me off (and I guess deliberately so). There are clearly some parallels here in terms of the whole art criticism angle – with Lawrence’s attitude towards cultivating a certain taste for cinema versus Grace Pine’s love for all sorts of indie and alternative rock, both new and old from Alanis Morissette to her latest discovery Bone Patrol. Both protagonists also go through a lot of pains and struggles along the way in terms of navigating the complexities of being a young person in a confusing world, finding friendships and love as well as understanding what it is at the end that they truly want more than anything. A sense of belonging and community and feeling loved in the places one would least expect – Lawrence at college, Grace in Montreal together with the members of Bone Patrol themselves.
This is also the most English-speaking Montreal you’ll ever see depicted on film, even if there is a little bit of French peppered here and there. You could say it makes sense that Grace would be hanging out in more English-speaking places given her background and her lack of understanding French in general (which does result in one hilarious scene at the convenience store when she’s trying to find Sour Patch Kids), although I do wonder how the Quebecois audience would interpret this creative decision.
I think the film does a good job of capturing a certain period in time as far as the Canadian indie music scene is concerned. The death of traditional music journalism was starting to take shape in the rise of social media platforms online. Magazine publications like Spin (as referenced in the film) were in that awkward transitional period towards online digital spaces as opposed to print. We see that impact on Grace as she tries to navigate through the trials and tribulations of making any kind of living off of music journalism. But that isn’t to say it’s completely impossible – perhaps she should have been a YouTuber like Anthony Fantano or an influencer instead.
You can tell this came from a more genuine place than I Like Movies given Chandler Levack’s own background and experience working in music journalism as a woman. The end result is a lot more palatable and digestible. Certainly a crowd-pleaser for sure, and with the names attached to this by the likes of stars such as Barbie Ferreira, Jay Baruchel and Devon Bostick, I anticipate this will go much farther than I Like Movies did.