The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS

Sundance London 2018

Never Goin’ Back

Sundance London 2018: Never Goin’ Back | Review
29 May 2018
Daniel Amir
Daniel Amir
Avatar
Daniel Amir
29 May 2018

Movie and show review

Daniel Amir

Never Goin' Back

★★★★★

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Special event

If time has proved one thing, it’s that there will always be a market for films like Never Goin’ Back. Two roguish teenagers, Angela (Maia Mitchell) and Jessie (Cami Morrone), party their week away as they struggle to make rent money and dodge the fallout from their roommates’ ill-fated schemes to get rich quick. The things they want are simple: freedom, independence, respect… oh and drugs. Lots of drugs. Think Harold and Kumar, Withnail & I, but with a gutsy, zany feel and, crucially, women protagonists.

This is Augustine Frizzell’s debut feature film, and her efforts to rejig the genre are admirable. She frames the libertine life in a way that gives these young women a kind of dignity even amidst 85 minutes of toilet humour. She brings justice to the misogynists and rewards the tenacity of these lost-and-found characters. There are moments when she extends her keen eye into a more kooky, farcical cadence for the film, one only wishes there were more such big-laugh moments.

Given the fairly loose structure the movie takes, Mitchell and Morrone shoulder much of the responsibility for keeping audiences cheering them on through their adventures. Their characters are ballsy, confident, but as they play by their own rules they remain strangers to audiences. With a bit more thrust and backstory, Angela and Jessie could be great cult figures, but they are perhaps let down by a lack of depth.

In Never Goin’ Back girls don’t just want to have fun. They want to make it to the beach, to feel the wind in their hair and escape their deadbeat jobs. In the process, they want to put a fresh stamp on the drug-romp. For Augustine Frizzell, this is perhaps a first step, but it is not all the way there.

★★★★★

Daniel Amir

Never Goin’ Back does not have a UK release date yet.

For further information about Sundance 2018 visit here.

Read more reviews from the festival here.

Related Itemsreviewsundance londonsundance london film festival

More in Film festivals

Blackbird premiere: On the red carpet with Roger Mitchell and the cast at London Film Festival 2019

Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

The Lighthouse premiere: On the red carpet with Willem Dafoe and Robert Eggers at London Film Festival 2019

Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

The Other Lamb

★★★★★
Ghazaleh Golpira
Read More

The Irishman: The jewel in Scorsese’s cinematic crown

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Ordinary Love

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Fanny Lye Deliver’d

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Give Me Liberty

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Official Secrets

★★★★★
Mary-Catherine Harvey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Daniel Amir

Never Goin' Back

★★★★★

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Special event

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Secret Cinema Presents Stranger Things: An uncanny, immersive delight
    Cinema
  • Three Sisters at the National Theatre
    Theatre
  • Five of the best Christmas afternoon teas in London
    Food & Drinks
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • The Duchess of Malfi at Almeida Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Sting always makes me want to choreograph”: An interview with ZooNation director Kate Prince
    Theatre
  • A Kind of People at the Royal Court Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • Thriller Live at Lyric Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • The Snow Queen at Park Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Three Sisters at the National Theatre
    Theatre
  • A Taste of Honey at Trafalgar Studios
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Sundance London 2018: Generation Wealth | Review
Sundance London 2018: Leave No Trace | Review