Film Review: NEVER CHANGE!: An Interesting and Goofy Comedy About Adults Going Back to High School [Tribeca 2026]

Never Change! Review

Never Change! (2026) Film Review from the 25th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie directed by Marty Schousboe, written by John Reynolds and Marty Schousboe and starring Sofia Black-D’Elia, Jo Firestone, Gary Richardson, Carmen Christopher, John Reynolds, Patti Harrison, Sunita Mani, Topher Grace, Ana Gasteyer, Rudy Pankow, Zach Cherry, John Early, Maria Thayer, Steve Little, Jackie Cruz, Ayden Mayeri, Billy Bryk and Roberta Colindrez.

Ever have a nightmare about going back to high school as an adult? If you have had one, then don’t miss your chance to see Never Change! in which some 30-somethings are forced to go back to North Meadows High School due to a tornado that occurred in 2005 which blew up their original graduation plans. Filmmaker Marty Schousboe has co-written and directed a story that probably has zero chance of happening in reality, but he almost makes it feel like it could happen through a high-concept idea that doesn’t always deliver in the laughs department despite trying its hardest.

Jo Firestone is the most enjoyable performer in the film. Firestone plays Amelia Nadler, a married woman whose husband is sadly not content with being with her. Firestone has an ordinary, yet unique, quality that manifests itself through her performance in the new film. Her new love interest, Curtis Eldridge (Gary Richardson), seems like a mismatch for her at first, but never underestimate the potential of a zany comedy like this to use an “anything goes” playbook. Richardson has a comic edge that makes his character likable here.

Carmen Christopher plays a dad/bar owner named Tedi Mayo who has a pretty big family that depends on him. Carmen Christopher has an “every man” quality about him that makes him perfect for the part. This film’s funniest scenes come in the beginning of the picture and one of them shows the GPA’s of the students returning to secure their high school graduations. A 1 point-something GPA for one of the key characters is a revelation that is bound to put a smile on some audience members’ faces.

One female character asks if the older returning students are allowed to be intimate with the students in a crass way that kick starts the unfunny elements of Never Change!. This movie had a lot of potential yet it seems content with just being bizarre most of the time. Sofia Black-D’Elia’s intelligent newscaster, Katie Cartwright, is the most easy to like character in the movie, but the film doesn’t do her justice with enough screen time, instead choosing to divide the moments in the film between at least half a dozen other main characters with mixed results all around.

There’s nothing wrong with Never Change! that a good edit couldn’t have fixed. Some obviously improvised lines could have been snipped in favor of a more substantial story line where the things people say matter more. Almost everybody says hurtful things in the movie that feel crude and rude and while these zingers could have been funny, they fall flat half the time, making the movie feel like more like an attention grabber than a genuinely inspired movie.

Firestone has fun here. She knows the stakes are low so just goes for it and the results are mildly entertaining whenever she’s on-screen. She may change the most as a character after the events of the movie. Never Change! is full of itself at times, though, because it knows it has a near-genius story line at its core. It’s just that the plot’s detours don’t amount to anything in the grand scheme of things for most of the characters other than Amelia and Curtis. Lives change for some of the characters, yes, but others simply get to relive the experience of high school a second time which gives them a newfound respect for life. This movie could have been a bit more with another polish in the writing department.

Never Change! has the idea that it’s never too late to reboot your life going for it, which is nice. It also is jam-packed with stars like John Early, co-writer John Reynolds and Jackie Cruz as Victoria who stands by her husband through thick and thin. These parts feel unnecessary and it would have been better to devote more time to the lead characters than the minor ones within the picture.

Never Change! has too many crass jokes and ridiculous lines that the movie thinks are funny but aren’t really. Still, it could appeal to those people who always wonder what it would have been like to attend high school knowing more about life after graduating and experiencing the world. Maybe it takes a second graduation to realize what’s missing after over a decade of being out of high school for the characters in this film.

Although it’s not a very good movie, there are some smiles to be had in Never Change! for moviegoers hooked on the idea of reuniting with fellow students from the past. This movie inspires more thoughts of how it could have been better than anything else, but has moments of genuine hilarity that could make it worthwhile for fans of goofy comedies.

Rating: 6/10

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