Heated Rivalry's Showrunner Directed A Coming-Of-Age Comedy You Must See

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The name on everyone's lips these days is Jacob Tierney, the show creator, writer, and director behind the sensational "Heated Rivalry." Tierney has been an industry mainstay and Canadian treasure since his years as a child actor, but the success of his adaptation of New York Times Bestseller Rachel Reid's queer hockey romance novels has elevated his status internationally beyond what he already enjoyed with hits like "Letterkenny" and "Shoresy." His approach to "Heated Rivalry" is the antithesis of all of American streaming's worst habits, and despite the first season ending on December 26, 2025, the show is (as of publication) still enjoying the #1 spot as the most-watched show on HBO Max here in the States. Season 2 of "Heated Rivalry" may be a ways away, but fortunately, Tierney has a fantastic filmography for fans looking to experience more of his artistic offerings.

One of his very best is the 2009 coming-of-age political comedy "The Trotsky," starring fellow Canadian treasure, Jay Baruchel. The story centers on 17 (and ¾) year old Leon Bronstein (Baruchel), who believes that he is the reincarnation of the political revolutionary Leon Trotsky, whose birth name was Bronstein. Leon has dedicated his life to following in his hero's footsteps, including trying to unionize his father's factory via a hunger strike, pursuing a woman nearly a decade his senior named Alexandra (Emily Hampshire) to replicate Trotsky's first marriage, and encouraging a student revolution after he's sent to a West Montreal public school and discovers the Student Union isn't an actual union.

"The Trotsky" possesses the same twisted sense of humor as a film like "Heathers" with the sensibilities of the "indie teen film" boom that arrived in the wake of "Juno," crafting the perfect coming-of-age story for politically radical high schoolers.

For as much as older generations like to look down at The Youth™ of any given time period, there's an inherent bravery to 17-18-year-olds who are uncovering the countless injustices that exist in the world they've been born into, but haven't been beaten down by the obligatory responsibilities of life that snuff out the fire within us to fight for change.

Leon's passion is treated with the same level of borderline delusion often reserved for teenage girls with pop idols, so it's hard not to be completely charmed by a 17-year-old in wire-rimmed glasses channeling that obsession into fighting the powers that be. Leon's determination to live up to his namesake is often implausible (including his questionable relationship with a graduate student replicating the real life of Trotsky through a 2009 lens), but he proves himself to be the leader that his high school needs because he's completely unrestrained by the societal pressure that tells him he "can't."

Baruchel is pitch-perfect in his performance, providing the ideal amount of teenage venom with every hurling of "fascist" at the adults who dare question his dogma. But there's a level of sophistication to the comedy in Tierney's script that refuses to be ignored. It'd be easy to write this film off as a satire of overly politicized teenagers, but "The Trotsky" genuinely loves Leon and validates his fight to unionize his high school. His efforts to unite the student body across positional and philosophical lines aren't rooted in his demand that everyone believe what he believes exactly as he believes it, but that the key to getting anything accomplished as a collective is to get involved in whatever way you can. Perfection will always be the enemy of progress.

Leon is a minor prophet with a major frustration, in that while he's pushing for a revolution, his peers are more concerned with choosing a theme for the school dance. At the center of this conflict is a philosophical conundrum: are his fellow students apathetic, or are they just bored? Apathy implies that his fellow would-be comrades are completely absent from concern, whereas boredom indicates a lack of meaningful orientation. Leon takes an empathetic approach toward his classmates to figure out the best way to compel them to care about something, recognizing that it's not that they're against joining his crusade, but rather they've never been given a good enough reason to question the system they've been socialized to accept as the immovable status quo.

His immersion into the public school environment is initially presented as an intrusion, but his steadfast commitment to his ideals slowly radicalizes those around him. Students like Skip (Jesse Camacho), Caroline (Kaniehtiio Horn), Tony (Ricky Mabe), Dwight (Jesse Rath), and even Leon's younger sister, Sarah (Tommie-Amber Pirie), are all forever changed by Leon's determination.

As he comes to realize, most people do, in fact, care about conviction, about meaning, and about the practical implications of belief. What they increasingly lack is not ideology but space for interpretation. And with the constant feedback loop of social media, it's only gotten worse. Decontextualized information accumulates until it becomes indistinguishable from ambient noise, and even content one might otherwise find significant becomes intolerably dull through sheer repetition of doomscrolling. Leon might not (or might be?) the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, but he's an example of the exact type of leader that young people desperately need.

"The Trotsky" is available on VOD services or on physical media.