Reverie Magazine

“On September 20th, the Canadian film Middle Life made its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival. Directed and written by Pavan Moondi, Middle Life follows Andie (played by Leah Fay Goldstein), a wedding planner and new mother who tries to plan and organize everything in her life perfectly. Despite trying to craft her life exactly the way that she wants, she is still rather unhappy, including a lack of fulfillment in her marriage with Chris (played by Luke Lalonde). One night, she saves a plumber named Ryan (played by Peter Dreimanis) from a roadside accident. Over the next year, their paths intertwine again, sparking a new and unexpected friendship and leading her to gain a newfound perspective on life. Unlike some romantic comedies where the jokes don't land or the romance just isn't there, Middle Life has a great balance of comedic and romantic elements. Middle Life will simultaneously make you laugh out loud and melt your heart. Odds are you will have a huge smile on your face by the time the movie ends.

Remarkably, in its short runtime, Moondi packs a lot in, allowing the viewer to care deeply about the characters. Moondi does this by utilizing quick scenes or montages, especially near the beginning of the film, instantly transporting us into the daily lives of the characters. As time goes on we get longer scenes where Andy and Ryan share the screen and develop a connection together. Once this happens, wonderful chaos ensues, including randomly crashing a house party and impulsively flying to LA. Again, the more we learn about these characters and the more they bond and develop, the easier it is to feel for them.

It is always interesting to see musicians acting in a film. Sometimes it turns out poorly; other times it turns out wonderfully, and you hope to see them in more projects. Middle Life fits the latter. The three main stars of Middle Life are Goldstein and Dreimanis of July Talk and Lalonde of Born Ruffians. All of them are phenomenal in their roles, but the main standout is Dreimanis, who is comedy gold. Earlier this year, Dreimanis played a menacingly mysterious folk-singing vampire named Bert in Sinners. This was his first film role, though you would not be able to tell, as he was tremendous here. Middle Life sees him in an entirely different role, but he is just as good. Dreimanis is effortlessly charming and endearing as Ryan, making him such a likable character. He brings such a wild, goofy energy to the role, providing many of the biggest laughs of the film. His energetic performance really brings Ryan’s adventurous and free-spirited personality to life. Hopefully, in the future we will see Dreimanis in more comedies.

The chemistry between Dreimanis and Goldstein is really what makes this movie work so well. They are just as amazing on the screen together as they are on the stage performing together. Each scene they share together is incredibly engaging to watch, thanks to the natural conversations between them and their seamless chemistry. Due to their performances and chemistry, it is so easy to root for Andie and Ryan to end up together, as they are super adorable and cute together.

Other highlights include the score and cinematography. Ben Fox’s score, a jazzy bossa nova throwback to classic ’70s and ’80s romantic comedies and sitcoms, is stunningly gorgeous. Fox was able to masterfully convey the feeling of ‘love is in the air’ with the score. Additionally, the heavy use of the saxophone in the score was a great choice; it really immerses the viewer in the film and adds to the cozy vibe that the film has. Meanwhile, Jared Raab's cinematography, along with the colour grading, is absolutely beautiful. Raab does a fantastic job capturing the wonderful landscapes of Toronto and L.A., making it as if they are characters themselves in the film. Between Fox's score and Raab's cinematography, it occasionally feels like you are watching a classic romantic comedy, with When Harry Met Sally… or You’ve Got Mail coming to mind for me.

Overall, Middle Life is a sweet and heartwarming romantic comedy that is definitely worth checking out.”

Joseph MastelReverie Magazine

“Watching Middle Life feels like being surrounded by a warm blanket. Full of heartwarming moments, perfect chemistry between its two leads (Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein of July Talk), and a nice balance of sidesplitting humour, poignant reflections on life, and quirky charm, Middle Life is one of the best romantic comedies of 2025. Directed, written, and edited by Pavan Moondi, the film follows Andie (played by Goldstein), a wedding planner and new mother, who tries to perfectly plan every aspect of her life. Feeling trapped in her marriage with her husband, Chris (played by Luke Lalonde of Born Ruffians) and unhappy with her life, she craves a change. One night, she saves a plumber named Ryan (played by Dreimanis) from a car accident and over the next year, their paths intertwine again, and again, sparking an unlikely friendship that profoundly changes both of their lives.

After the film’s world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival this September, REVERIE chatted with director, writer, and editor Moondi about his film.

Moondi had the initial idea for Middle Life in his mind for a while. The seeds of the idea grew into something bigger last year when he came back to Canada for Jared Raab’s wedding. Raab, a close friend of Moondi’s, handled the cinematography and served as one of the producers for Middle Life. At the wedding, Moondi also reunited with close friends Dreimanis and Goldstein. “I had been really wanting to make a smaller independent film again, because I started out doing that and fell into the TV world,” said Moondi. “Peter had just shot Sinners, but it hadn’t come out yet, and he’d been talking about doing more acting… and I know Leah wanted to act again. At the wedding, I just pitched them this one-line idea: ‘What if this character was in a car accident, and someone pulls them out of the car, and it’s about how their life is upended by this mysterious figure.’”

The pitch excited Dreimanis and Goldstein, and they expressed interest in doing the film. They told Moondi to flesh out the story and send them something. “I went back home after the wedding, and I wrote the first draft of the film in about three weeks or so and sent it to them,” recalls Moondi. “It was still pretty rough. They had a lot of feedback on it, and we had a bunch of Zoom calls just collaborating and honing in on what we wanted it to be. The thing that unlocked it was taking that one-sentence idea and combining it with a desire I had to create a romantic comedy that felt like a throwback, like a movie from the ’80s or ’90s, submerging those two together is what really gave us something like a north star to be chasing.”

Drawing inspiration from films like An Unmarried Woman, Crossing Delancey, Hannah And Her Sisters, Stepmom, and When Harry Met Sally..., Moondi wanted Middle Life to evoke the same warmth and have the same rewatch value as those films. “That feeling of warmth was something we could point to if we were having doubts about really going for it, because obviously, having a big warm ending, you don’t see that as much lately in independent films,” he comments. “It’s usually more real, like they're gonna go their separate ways and they're better for it, but they’re glad for what they had.” Instead of going in that more ‘real’ direction, Moondi wanted the film to incite joy. "It was remembering the movies that we love, and are referring to, and keep going back to, and rewatching 30 years after they are made, they’re not the movies that leave you cold, they’re the movies that make you feel warm, so we need to lean into doing that.”

Although Moondi was adamant about giving Middle Life that warm, cozy feeling, he also made sure it had depth and nuance. “In some way or another, all [of my films] have been about a different phase in your life,” he explains. As the title suggests, Middle Life features characters exploring their midlife and the new experiences that come with it, including the brevity of life, which Moondi was thinking a little bit about when writing the character of Ryan. “Five years ago, I probably didn’t know anyone who had died or had no connection to anyone who died aside from maybe a grandparent, and as you start getting into your late 30s and early 40s, people start dropping like flies, and it’s jarring… Like if someone in their early 40s just goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up, it’s not a medical mystery. It’s just like ‘Oh yeah, he had a heart attack.’ It’s totally feasible. I hope [the film] captures some element of the idea that life is short, but I didn’t want that to be overrepresented in the movie and make it depressing. But I hope it's present in the subtext.”

Early in the film, there are numerous short scenes and montages, allowing the viewer to get to know Andie and Ryan quickly within a short amount of time. By instantly transporting the viewer directly into both of their lives, the viewer can feel for the characters very early on. “It’s something I was really deliberately trying to do, but I think if the whole movie was like that, it would probably make people feel cold because it would seem like you’re watching a TikTok because you’d be seeing such short segments,” reflects Moondi. “It was pretty important to use those short scenes early to get people into our world and understand who the characters are, but then have some scenes that are a little more lived-in and longer… Those longer scenes are pretty critical to get people invested. That was key: having a mix of short scenes and longer scenes that really give you a sense of what it would be like to sit down with them as a person and get to know that person.”

Initially, Andie was the main focal point of the movie. However, Moondi, Dreimanis, and Goldstein realized that making Ryan a more well-rounded character was important to the film. “As we were working on it, writing, shooting, and adding little scenes here and there, I think we realized it’s just easier to get the audience more invested if we bring them in and let them know about Ryan’s relationship with his Dad, and what’s going on with this car accident, and don’t just leave it as a mystery to the viewer,” comments Moondi.

Like his previous two films, Diamond Tongues and Sundowners, Moondi directed, edited, and wrote Middle Life. “When I’m directing it, and I know that I’m editing it, I can direct it in a certain way where I’m editing it in my head as we’re shooting it, and it just makes it more efficient to shoot it that way,” says Moondi. Sometimes, though, being an editor while also being a writer and director can make it challenging to decide which parts should be cut. “You can definitely lose perspective because when you’re making a film and editing it, because at that point it’s probably been almost a year where your head has been in the movie, and you know the ins and outs of the movie. You know it better than anyone. It’s really hard to put yourself in the shoes of the audience because you’re the farthest person away from that. I think in the previous films, there were definitely moments where I felt that or experienced that. I look back at those films now, and there are things I would do differently in hindsight.”

Moondi’s editing process for Middle Life was quite different from his previous films. “In the past, I have been showing people cuts, and the movie has been too long, and everyone is like it’s too long, you have to cut this down, and I’m like ‘But it’s so good we have to keep this,’” he states. “This time, it was the opposite. I was ruthlessly cutting things left and right, really trying to lean into having the movie be paced well, moving fast, and having scenes that were short, really trying not to give people an opportunity to get bored. I did that and sent it to a lot of filmmaker friends I have and trust, and sure enough, there were still scenes where they were like ‘You could take a little off the beginning and a little off the end here’ and this time, I didn’t push back.”

Middle Life was filmed between Toronto and L.A., where Moondi has been living for the past eight years (they actually shot some scenes in his house). Due to their tight budget, the small selection of shooting locations helped elevate the film. “A way we could really expand the scope of this movie is by having this relatively surprising turn in a movie that feels really small is all of a sudden shooting in L.A.,” says Moondi. “Also, from a production point of view, I still have tons of friends in Toronto, and Pete and Leah are based in Toronto… We put all our resources together to make the biggest film that we can make with the budget we have.”

Middle Life made its world premiere on September 20th at the Calgary International Film Festival. “The festival and Brenda Lieberman were so great in helping get so much of our cast and crew out for the screening; it definitely exceeded my expectations,” he says. “We hadn’t seen it with an audience, so that was amazing, having a couple of hundred people there, hearing what was resonating with the audience, and hearing which parts got laughs.”
In the future, Moondi hopes Middle Life could become a new holiday movie classic, as it features a handful of Christmas songs and scenes. “I hope its enough of a Christmas movie that people will be motivated to watch it every December, but I would call it an early Christmas movie, one you would watch on December 1st, not something you would watch on December 23rd when your in full Christmas spirit, because its not really about Christmas, but I feel like it can definitely get you in the mood,” smiles Moondi.”

Joseph MastelReverie Magazine

“Directed, written, and edited by Pavan Moondi and starring July Talk members Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein, Middle Life follows Andie (played by Goldstein), a wedding planner and new mother who attempts to plan every aspect of her life perfectly. Despite her best efforts, unhappiness seeps into her life and her marriage to her husband, Chris (played by Luke Lalonde, also of the band Born Ruffians). One night, she comes across a roadside car accident and saves a plumber named Ryan (played by Dreimanis), over the next year, they cross paths again and again, leading to an unexpected friendship that ultimately gives Andie a newfound perspective on life. With stunning chemistry between Dreimanis and Goldstein, a mesmerizing Bossa nova score from Ben Fox, and a warm, emotional undertone throughout the film, Middle Life feels like a return to the beloved rom-com classics of the ’90s bringing When Harry Met Sally... or You've Got Mail into the 2020s.

After the film’s world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival this September, REVERIE chatted with Dreimanis and Goldstein about their work on the film.

“When something kind of scares us, it makes us want to do it, and the idea of doing a rom-com seemed so out of left field, but it felt like we could learn a lot by working like a fish out of water,” says Dreimanis. “I think as film school kids and people coming up in the Toronto art scene, you are usually trying to make movies that are super subversive and trying to make it be super unique and an elevator pitch that is never heard of before. I think the idea of creating something that relied on a referential genre and was kind of predictable, relying on these notes that worked time and time again, felt challenging.”

“It’s just this little cute, delightful, funny rom-com moment, and its only aim is to make people feel good, and I’m grateful for Pavan for doing that work,” adds Goldstein.
Although Moondi wrote the film, Dreimanis and Goldstein provided him with notes and collaborated on the script. The pair wanted Middle Life to convey a more realistic view of what it is like to be a parent and the way a new parent thinks. “Pavan doesn’t have kids currently, so there were certain things we were trying to insert, like, there is no way Andie wouldn’t be thinking about her baby in the back of her mind in this scene, or little things that I think a lot of people probably wouldn’t notice, like when she is getting ready to go out, but she’s also defrosting some breast milk so her partner can feed the baby and put the baby to bed,” says Goldstein. “We wanted to illustrate that you can be away from your baby for a weekend, but your body, mind, and heart are still very much with them.”

“When you’re a parent and we have both been kind of going through this as of late, everything in your life has to do with your kid, and that’s the only thing that matters to you in a lot of ways,” adds Dreimanis. “A lot of these movies, it seems like the kid is put in to make the audience like the character more, or seem more complicated. Then the whole movie it's like ‘Where’s the kid? Who is taking care of the kid right now?’” he adds.

Moondi had Dreimanis and Goldstein watch several classic rom-coms to prepare for their roles, including When Harry Met Sally…, Crossing Delancey, and Stepmom, among others. Goldstein also watched Babes and Tully to prepare for the role of Andie. “I just watched them to see what’s already out there in terms of people making comedic films about motherhood and parenting,” she says. “Getting to play someone who is young and a new mother, but that’s not the whole point of her character, is just exciting to me.” After watching many Hollywood films featuring new mothers, Goldstein noticed a common trend among them. She thought Moondi did a great job of making Andie a much more fleshed-out character. “It felt like a lot of them were a bit one-dimensional, either with just experiencing like postpartum or being used as a kind of trope character. I find Pavan is really good at writing characters who are going through a multifaceted human experience. Andie fell into that, too.”

Meanwhile, Dreimanis found inspiration from Broadcast News and The Bear. “I was really taken away by Albert Brooks’ performance in Broadcast News, where he is this sort of emotional heart-on-his-sleeve guy, especially that scene where he is drunk,” he says. “Ebon Moss-Bachrach took on that sort of blue-collar character in The Bear. I grew up with a lot of folks in blue-collar fields, like the trades and stuff like that. I have a ton of respect for people who do that for a living. I wanted that to be believable – I pictured Ebon here and there in my performance.”

Earlier this year, Dreimanis made his feature film debut in Sinners, where he played a frighteningly eerie and mysteriously brooding folk-singing vampire named Bert. He found that Bert was more in his wheelhouse. “Being a creepy guy, I can do that all day,” he laughs. “My instincts generally lend themselves to more brooding, dark, suspenseful storylines, even in music and the characters that come to my mind in songs. It was a huge shift to have to go into this place, where I was speaking very loudly, going very big, trying to be convincing to tell Andie to go big and have an epic adventure. It went against my every instinct.” Despite being a bit out of his comfort zone, Dreimanis was up for the challenge and had a blast playing Ryan, mainly because of the way Ryan sees the world. “It felt fun to force myself into creating a character like that… He is obviously such a hopeful, positive optimist, and in today’s world, it was fun to play someone who is maybe naively excited about the world. Even though he is running away from demons, it kind of felt like he just woke up every day happy to be alive.”

On the other hand, Goldstein was the star of Moondi’s Diamond Tongues, where she played Edith, an actress who dreams of being a movie star. She tells me that this film relied more on improvisation, especially depending on who she was doing a scene with. “Pavan was like ‘This is the point of the scene as long as you hit this mark, this mark, and this mark let’s see what happens,’ and acting in a scene with someone like Nick Flanagan, who is a very hilarious Toronto comedian, Pavan was like ‘This is how Nick will thrive and Leah will be able to play off of him.’” She also had a small role in Sundowners, where she acted alongside Lalonde, which also relied heavily on improvisation. “Pavan just wanted us to have a weird, awkward conversation and Luke and I are quite good at that as people, so he just wanted to capture that [on screen.]”

Middle Life took a different turn, as there was almost no room for improvisation. “Sticking to the script was pretty important to Pavan, so that felt really new,” continues Goldstein. “Also trying to figure out how to give deliveries that are accurate for a character where there wasn’t really room to make it your own, and often it was about trying to give slightly different performances of the same scene and line. Like this time, you’re being slightly more aggressive, or this time slightly more defeated. Pavan always at the back of his mind had ‘Will people be rooting for Andie? Will people be rooting for Chris? Will people be rooting for Ryan?’ It was just trying to find this balance where no one is really a good guy, and no one is really a bad guy.”

Giving slightly different performances or line readings for the same scene was a weird experience for Dreimanis. “In music, you kind of figure out the best version of whatever you are doing, and you try to do the best version of that best version, but with film, because so much of it is created in the editing room it felt kind of crazy to have to imagine and act out every which way a certain scene could go,” he comments.

Middle Life celebrated its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival this September. “It was great to watch it with a room full of people who laugh at the things you hope they would laugh at and laugh at things you didn’t know people would laugh at and just be able to see it function,” says Goldstein. “I felt really pleased with how it unfolded and how it delighted people, which is like the whole point of a rom-com.”

“Watching it with an audience and hearing their reactions, and feeling the lightness in the room, I'll never forget it,” said Dreimanis.

Dreimanis and Goldstein are incredibly proud and happy with the way Middle Life turned out. They hope the film brings people joy and inspires people to try something new, no matter how scary it might be. “I feel like it is pretty brave to try and incite joy in this moment, and that’s kind of what makes it revolutionary,” says Goldstein.

“I think we often get stuck in thinking who we think we are, and the narratives we tell ourselves about the roles we play in society, and how those things have to be constant and stagnant,” reflects Dreimanis. “I think that Middle Life is cool in that it sort of encourages you to look at your life and that at any point, you can start again and try something new, or if something's not working, change it.”

Joseph MastelReverie Magazine