High School Was Bad Enough the First Time

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MOVIE REVIEW
Never Change!
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Genre: Comedy
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director(s): Marty Schousboe
Writer(s): John Reynolds
Cast: John Reynolds, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Carmen Christopher, Jo Firestone, Gary Richardson, Maria Thayer, Rudy Pankow, Topher Grace, Jackie Cruz, Ana Gasteyer, Patti Harrison, Zach Cherry
Where to Watch: shown at the 2026 Tribeca Festival, premieres June 17, 2026, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the U.S., and on Disney+ internationally

RAVING REVIEW: NEVER CHANGE! takes an instantly recognizable nightmare, the fear of being forced back into high school, and turns it into a strange, surprisingly pointed, yet also an undeniable 90s throwback comedy about people who never got the ending they thought they were owed. The setup is ridiculous. In 2008, the graduating class of North Meadows High School had its senior year cut short by a disastrous tornado. Now those former students are in their mid-30s, with jobs, families, regrets, stalled relationships, faded ambitions, and emotional baggage they’ve had years to pretend they outgrew. Then they’re ordered to return home and finish high school once and for all.

NEVER CHANGE! somehow works because it understands the nightmare underneath the absurdity. High school is already a place where everyone is trapped inside versions of themselves they may not have chosen. Bringing adults back into that environment doesn’t just create fish-out-of-water comedy. It forces them to collide with the unfinished versions of themselves they left behind. The film is funny because the situation is stupid, but it has more bite when it recognizes how little some people need to regress.

John Reynolds, who also wrote the film, has a sharp sense for characters who are almost cliches of socially uncomfortable without becoming empty caricatures. His humor often comes from people trying to behave normally while clearly collapsing inside, and NEVER CHANGE! gives him a blank slate to play with that ideal. The returning students aren’t just embarrassed to be back. They’re offended by what the return reveals. Some are desperate to prove they’ve changed. Some are secretly relieved to have a chance at rewriting the past. Others walk through the doors and immediately become the same insecure, needy, petty, romantic, or self-sabotaging people they were as teenagers.

Marty Schousboe directs the film with a strong grasp of awkward “teen” comedy. The movie doesn’t need to make North Meadows High feel realistic. It needs the school to feel like a psychological trap, a place where memory has fluorescent lighting and every interaction carries an old humiliation beneath it. Schousboe leans into that discomfort without making the film feel mean for its own sake. The comedy can be silly, but it’s not careless. It knows that embarrassment hits harder when it’s tied to something real.

Sofia Black-D’Elia brings a grounded energy that keeps the emotional stakes from floating away into pure absurdity. Carmen Christopher, Jo Firestone, and Gary Richardson each fit naturally into the film’s off-center comic world, giving the group dynamic the loose, slightly jagged quality it needs. The supporting cast is stacked with performers who know how to make small moments land, including Maria Thayer, Rudy Pankow, Topher Grace, Jackie Cruz, Ana Gasteyer, Patti Harrison, and Zach Cherry. That matters a lot in a movie like this because the premise only carries the film so far on its own. After that, the jokes need personality, timing, and enough specificity to keep the returning-class setup from becoming too generic.

What NEVER CHANGE! gets right is the way nostalgia can turn hostile. The film isn’t interested in treating high school as a magical place everyone secretly wants to revisit. It understands that nostalgia is often just discomfort with better lighting. These characters aren’t only remembering who they used to be. They’re being confronted with who they never became. Old flames resurface, second chances start looking suspicious, and the fantasy of closure gets messier the longer everyone stays in the building.

There are moments when the film’s concept strains against its length. Some jokes feel like they’re circling the same idea over and over, and not every supporting character gets enough space to breathe. The movie also has to balance several tones at once, including the reunion comedy, romantic regret, and midlife discomfort.

The best version of NEVER CHANGE! is the one that treats returning to high school less as a wacky punishment and more as an emotional audit. Who lied? Who built a whole personality around leaving town? Who mistook escape for growth? Who still wants applause from people they claim not to care about anymore? Those questions give the film more substance than the setup initially suggests.

NEVER CHANGE! works because it turns regression into a comic pressure cooker. The film understands how easily adulthood can crack when the past walks back in wearing a varsity jacket. Its humor is awkward, anxious, and often ridiculous, but there’s a real idea underneath it. Some people don’t need to relive high school because they never stopped measuring themselves by it.

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