Filmmakers Marty Schousboe and John Reynolds brought their new comedy Never Change! to the Tribeca Film Festival, where they discussed the film’s origins, themes, and memorable moments from production in an interview with The Knockturnal.
Never Change! centers on a group of adults in their mid-30s who are forced to return to high school after a tornado cut their senior year short in 2008, preventing them from graduating. The premise allowed Schousboe and Reynolds to explore familiar coming-of-age themes through characters who have long since aged out of the high school experience.
Reynolds said the idea grew out of a rewatch of the 1998 teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait. He and Schousboe were drawn to the ensemble energy and nostalgic quality of the film and wanted to create a similar experience with older characters navigating an environment that no longer fits them. Their goal was to make a movie that felt fun, sweet, and comfortable while delivering strong comedy throughout.
“The whole idea of it was to just have fun and make the funniest thing we could possibly make and um make a sweet comfortable movie,” said Reynolds.
When discussing the film’s ending, the filmmakers spoke about the importance of grounding the story in authentic character relationships. They said that giving the characters meaningful emotional arcs provided a foundation that allowed the film to embrace more absurd and exaggerated comedic moments elsewhere. Both filmmakers praised the cast’s performances, singling out Gary Richardson and Joe Firestone, while also noting Sophia’s ability to balance comedic timing with emotional depth.
“If every character has an emotional arc, then we can get away with anything we want to do humor-wise and we can get as ridiculous tonally as we want as long as those relationships stay grounded and see themselves to their conclusion,” said Schousboe
The conversation also turned to the filmmakers’ own experiences in high school. Reynolds described the prospect of returning to high school as an adult as a nightmare scenario for most people and noted the inherent absurdity of the film’s premise. Schousboe reflected more positively on his own education, recalling his time at a well-funded school. The discussion revealed how different their formative experiences were, with Reynolds characterizing his upbringing as comparatively more modest.
Among the production stories shared during the interview, Reynolds recalled a particularly memorable mishap while filming outdoors in freezing temperatures. After completing a scene, the crew discovered that a window had been left open in his car. The vehicle had frozen from the inside out, creating an unexpected challenge and one of the more memorable moments from the shoot.
Never Change! debuted at the Tribeca Festival and is currently streaming on Hulu.
