Never Goin' Back

Name: Never Goin' Back
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: August 3, 2018
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 62
Cast: Aristotle Abraham II, Ashley Amos, Atheena Frizzell, Camila Morrone, Chris Challiot

2018

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

A24 | Release Date: August 3, 2018 | Not Rated

Starring: Aristotle Abraham II, Ashley Amos, Atheena Frizzell, Camila Morrone, Chris Challiot, Christopher Browhow, Craig Cole, Joel Allen, Kyle Mooney, Liz Franke, Maia Mitchell, Max Hartman

Summary: Angela (Maia Mitchell) and Jessie (Camila Morrone) dream of escaping their waitressing jobs at a low-rent Texas diner, even if it's only to Galveston. Taking place over just a few days, the film follows their hilarious and unpredictable misadventures on the streets of suburban Dallas as they attempt increasingly madcap and wild schemes toAngela (Maia Mitchell) and Jessie (Camila Morrone) dream of escaping their waitressing jobs at a low-rent Texas diner, even if it's only to Galveston. Taking place over just a few days, the film follows their hilarious and unpredictable misadventures on the streets of suburban Dallas as they attempt increasingly madcap and wild schemes to try and raise some cash.… Expand

Director: Augustine Frizzell

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Crime

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 85 min

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Critic Reviews

The Guardian Jake Nevins

Aug 2, 2018

Watching Never Goin’ Back, it’s easy to see the frames of reference Frizzell pulled from, besides her own teenage escapades. But the film also defies easy categorization; it’s not consistently funny enough to be a comedy, nor lively enough to be a drama. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Aug 1, 2018

Less moment-to-moment funny than committed to a sustained pitch of devilish glee, Never Goin’ Back couches its silliness in a credible milieu of American malaise. The women may never understand how they might find a better place, but the movie makes the case that their unending commitment to getting there might be good enough. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Aug 3, 2018

Never Goin’ Back would make a good drive-in movie, if drive-ins were still a thing. It’s breezy, benignly outrageous, equal parts grotty and sweet. Read full review

Robert Abele

Aug 1, 2018

Never Goin’ Back, which Frizzell has admitted is in ways an honest, personal reckoning with incidents in her own fumbling adolescence, has something many comedies simply fail to care about: a spark-filled joie de vivre about the stupidity of youth that lifts it above many more cynically crass (and typically male) examples of the genre. Read full review

Peter Goldberg

Jul 30, 2018

Writer-director Augustine Frizzell's film is funny and surprisingly tender, if at times frustratingly uneven. Read full review

The Film Stage Jose Solís

Aug 3, 2018

For all the times I applauded the film based on its sociological achievements, I found it deeply unsatisfying artistically. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

May 11, 2018

This is one of those films that, if shown overseas, could potentially make people think that the U.S. is going down the tubes even faster than imagined. Everyone in it — adolescents and grown-ups, too — is beyond stupid and content to remain that way. Read full review

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CityOfGeek

Dec 9, 2018

I’m sure you have those friends. The ones who are smart, funny, clever, and have some sort of potential. But they keep making boneheaded decisions. “I need to do this… but hrm, party? yeah I’ll party.” You shake you head as they get out of out issue, and immedialy get involved ins omethingI’m sure you have those friends. The ones who are smart, funny, clever, and have some sort of potential. But they keep making boneheaded decisions. “I need to do this… but hrm, party? yeah I’ll party.” You shake you head as they get out of out issue, and immedialy get involved ins omething else. Those friends are Jessie and Angela, the two leads from indie-powerhouse-distributor A24. The pair, played with such natural ease you’d think the camera is just following their lives by Camila Morrone and Maia Mitchell respectively, are 16 year old high-school drop out diner waitresses in a white-trash Texas town. They’ve just spent their rent money for a vacation to Galveston, and are set to work five doubles to make it up. Too bad for them, Jessie’s brother is a wanna be drug dealer and his mistakes get the girls thrown in jail for two days when he police come their house (all shared, with another roommate Brandon). From there they must make their way back to work to hold on to their jobs, and find a way to have the rent as well since the brother’s stupid plans have lost him his part too.

Morrone and Mitchell share the strong chemistry of two life-long best friends (they also make out while high, but that seems to be more of a fun thing for them to do rather than a sexual relationship). They have a wonderful sense of humor, play off each other and other characters with ease. They are witty and sharp, with wonderfully filthy mouths and a crude nature. (The obscenity laced tirades are legend) Too bad for them, they also will drop plans to get drunk and/or high. They are the type of friends that are a little too similar, too co-dependent, without someone else to say “okay, let’s think about this.” Of course, this makes good fun and great times. And trouble. But they’re 16. They’ll bounce back. But one can’t help but see without that clear head, they’ll live this life until they’re burnt out husks at 40. Perhaps I’m being too negative. The 16 year old versions of them are hilarious and fun to watch, especially as they keep digging their own holes to get out of.

And it is hilarious. Never Goin’ Back is a comedy through and through, even with the underlying tragic nature of the world. Essentially, it’s a “one wild night” type movie, albeit most of it takes place during the day. Absurdity, situations, reoccurring characters, hyjinx insure. I’ll give it this – I’m not a fan of poop-humor normally. But Never Goin’ Back has one that works, and works well. No worries, you don’t see any fecal matter, although other bodily liquids are present in the film.

In a few ways, I’m reminded of A24’s Oscar-snubbed best movie of last year, The Florida Project. Not that they share much in relation to plot, but in feel. Both feel like a camera is dropped into the lives of these characters. Both feel incredibly natural. Perhaps both deal with cycles of poverty, low-level crime, and the viewer wants everyone to break free. But it’s a hard world to break free from without the push from another. Never Goin’ Back does follow more of a standard narrative – particularly in having a perhaps just too cinema climax but I hold to this connection.

Never Goin’ Back is wildly irrelevant, hilarious, with two incredible young leads with amazing chemistry.

I give it an: A-… Expand

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