62
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnLess 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.
- 70VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeInspired at least in part by stunts Frizzell pulled when she was her characters’ age, this raucous parade of humiliation and embarrassment packs all the appeal of an outrageous anecdote hilariously retold by someone who can scarcely believe they ever did something so stupid.
- 70Village VoiceAbbey BenderVillage VoiceAbbey BenderWriter-director Augustine Frizzell, making her feature directorial debut, is attuned to the giddy intimacies of female friendship, and Mitchell and Morrone are a charismatic pair.
- 70The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisBy rights, Never Goin’ Back should be a chore to sit through. The jokes are dated, the behavior tasteless and the setups tired. Yet the movie has a ramshackle charm that’s due entirely to its vivacious leads, whose mutual devotion and easy, unlabeled sexuality feels endearingly innocent.
- 68TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleNever 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.
- 63Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreA scruffy, raunchy and random farce.
- 63Slant MagazinePeter GoldbergSlant MagazinePeter GoldbergWriter-director Augustine Frizzell's film is funny and surprisingly tender, if at times frustratingly uneven.
- 58Film Journal InternationalMaria GarciaFilm Journal InternationalMaria GarciaMarking her feature debut, Frizzell’s direction is competent, but her screenplay, which is semi-autobiographical, is a series of vignettes that narrowly add up to a narrative.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyEntertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyThe two leads have chemistry and a rebellious sort of charisma. Too bad they’re given such wheezy clichés to work with.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThis 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.