''Never Goin' Back'' is a 2018 American

stoner comedy Stoner film is a subgenre of comedy film that revolves around the Recreational drug use, recreational use of Cannabis (drug), cannabis. Generally, cannabis use is one of the main themes and inspires much of the plot. They are often representative ...

written, directed, and edited by

Augustine Frizzell Augustine Frizzell (born July 27, 1979) is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She made her feature film directorial debut with '' Never Goin' Back'' (2018). Early life Growing up in Garland, Texas, Frizzell attended South Garl ...

. It stars

Maia Mitchell Maia Mitchell (born 18 August 1993) is an Australian actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Brittany Flune in the children's television series '' Mortified'' for the Nine Network, and as Natasha Ham in the Seven Network's teen drama ...

and

Camila Morrone Camila Rebeca Morrone Polak (; born June 16, 1997) is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of actors Maximo Morrone and Lucila Polak; and was also raised in part by actor Al Pacino (who served as a parental figure during his long ...

as two broke teenage waitresses who stumble through a series of misadventures as they try to get away for a vacation to

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

on January 22, 2018. It was released on August 3, 2018, by

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

Plot

In southern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Angela and Jessie are best friends and high school dropouts who spend their time working as waitresses at a mundane restaurant and wanting more out of their lives. One day, Angela decides to surprise Jessie by purchasing a trip to

so they can spend Jessie's birthday at the beach. She uses their rent money to pay for it and arranges for both of them to do extra hours at the restaurant to make up for the money they spent on the trip. However, Dustin, Jessie's goofy older brother and both girls' roommate, spends his part of the rent in a failed drug sale he attempted with his friends. The next morning Tony, Dustin's friend, breaks into the house and steals an old TV because he thinks Dustin stole the drug money. The police arrive to check the scene of the crime and discover Angela's and Jessie's stash of weed and cocaine. Both girls are arrested. After spending two days in juvenile detention, where Jessie suffers from constipation, the girls are released and learn that Roderick, their boss, wants to talk to them. While headed to the laundry to wash their uniforms, they meet an ex-co-worker, Paul, who tells them that their mutual friend Art Dog is having a party at his home and that they can use his washing machine. At Art Dog's house, the girls try to remain sober, but they eat cannabis cookies by accident. They arrive high at their job and Roderick, even though he cares for both of them, makes the tough decision to fire them. With all hope lost, Jessie comes up with the idea of convincing Brandon, their other, porn-addicted roommate, to let them take the money from the cash register at the sandwich shop where he works and then tell the police he was robbed. At first Brandon doesn't like the idea but he accepts when the girls promise to have a threesome with him, a promise they do not intend to keep. At that moment, a disguised Dustin and his other friend, Ryan, enter and try to steal the money in order to recover what they lost in the drug deal. The girls immediately recognize them and they admit to Brandon they don't have enough money to pay for rent. After the boys leave, a terrified Brandon admits that there is only $50 in the register and that the rest is in a safe he does not have the key for. Brandon's boss, Mr. Dickson, unexpectedly arrives and Brandon hides the girls in the utility closet. Dickson makes Brandon leave, leaving Angela and Jessie trapped inside. Mr. Dickson then puts his penis inside of a sandwich bread and takes pictures of it, as the girls realize that he is an old man that they yelled at for being sexist at a grocery store. Suddenly Jessie starts having cramps due to the long constipation and defecates in a bucket. Angela, feeling disgust, opens the closet door and vomits on Mr. Dickson, who passes out on the floor. Relieved that he is still alive, the girls check his phone and find out he is "

sexting Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...

" with a woman who is not his wife. They decide to use his key to open the safe and take the money and leave a message for him telling they will show the pictures to his wife if he reports them to the police. Back in the house, where Brandon, Dustin, Ryan and Tony are all deeply sleeping, Angela and Jessie decide to leave them enough money to pay the rent and take the rest and go to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to start a new life. While they are talking about their plans, they fall asleep in their bed. The movie ends with a scene of Angela and Jessie having fun at the beach.

Cast

as Angela *

as Jessie * Joel Allen as Dustin * Kendal Smith as Tony * Matthew Holcomb as Ryan *

Kyle Mooney Kyle James Kozub Mooney (born September 4, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, and writer, who was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2013 until 2022. Mooney co-wrote and starred in the film '' Brigsby Bear'', in addition to co-crea ...

as Brandon * Atheena Frizzell as Crystal

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on January 22, 2018. Shortly after,

acquired distribution rights to the film. It also screened at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

on March 10, 2018. It was released on August 3, 2018.

Reception

''Never Goin' Back'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''Never Goin' Back'' benefits from the chemistry between leads Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone, whose easy rapport lifts a coming-of-age story with uncommon insight."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a weighted average rating of 62 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, never_goin_back 2018 films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2018 independent films 2010s teen comedy-drama films A24 (company) films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American female buddy films American independent films American teen comedy-drama films 2018 comedy-drama films Films directed by Augustine Frizzell 2010s female buddy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films