Never Goin’ Back *** (2018, Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney) – Movie Review

Never Goin’ Back sets itself up to be the female Dude, Where’s My Car?. But don’t get too excited. Okay, then, get a little bit excited.

Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone play high school dropout best friends Angela and Jessie, who are oh so close (what’s the word for a female bromance?), and just want to escape their mundane waitressing jobs for a week to have a hot vacation on a beach somewhere. But they are broke, the rent is due, their house is robbed, they land in jail, and they are fired.

The two girls are bright, lively and funny, but also abrasive and sometimes annoying. And so is the movie, but both it, and the girls, have their charms. Kyle Mooney is funny as dim old Brandon and Joel Allen amuses as dimmer brother Dustin. Yep, they are dim and dimmer.

Writer-director Augustine Frizzell pushes hard, and does raise a lot of laughs. But, like her heroines, she should tone it down a notch, and chill a little. And, in a crowded market for this kind of movie, it comes over pretty fresh. It is all done and dusted in a fast-moving, tidy 85 minutes. The movie could do with a less generic title, which would help to make it stand out further. Mitchell and Morrone could have great futures ahead of them, maybe.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com