Angela Morris and Josh Bywater in Never Not Yours, screening at the St. Louis International Film Festival 2024
Three thirtysomething siblings are traveling together in a car on the way to visit their parents. It’s the first time they’ve been trapped in the same space together in quite some time, and the tight quarters and anxiety about their destination highlights the differences in their personalities and places in life: eldest brother Michael (Josh Bywater), the classic firstborn go-getter with a nuclear family, a high-powered job, a high stress level, and a quick temper; Ellie (Angela Morris), the forgotten middle child who is genuinely nice but also insular and quiet and on the verge of big life changes she’s reluctant to talk about; and baby brother James (Timmy H. Barron), the artsy hipster slacker/screwup who resists adulthood at every turn. The three are piled in that car at the request of their parents—warm mom Maddie (Laura T. Fisher) and taciturn dad Jonathan (John Lister)—who invited the trio out to their cabin in the woods for a weekend sans their significant others. The kids are worried the parents are going to reveal one of them is dying, but they aren’t at all prepared for the real reason: their parents, who have always seemed loving and committed despite their very different personalities, are getting a divorce. And the kids have no idea how to handle it.
Stuck in the cabin that they visited often as children, the siblings settle into their old habits and roles—Michael the hothead, James the antagonist who knows how to push Michael’s buttons, and Ellie the peacemaker. Shooting on location in rural Indiana, co-writers/co-directors John Klein and Stephen Kniss use naturalistic dialogue and believable settings to establish their characters’ personalities and interrelationships, but as much as we start to enjoy the back-and-forth between them, the drama in the early going can feel a little on-the-nose, a little too familiar. Things start to turn when the siblings, exasperated and badly needing an escape from the cabin and a stiff drink, venture into the nearby rural town. As Michael finally breaks down and reveals why he’s been so on-edge, the film finally bursts to full life—Bywater performs his monologue with passion, but you can also feel the empathy pouring out of Morris and Barron’s performances as they just sit and listen to their brother pour his heart out.
The heartfelt honesty of this scene elevates the rest of the movie’s runtime. From there on out, all five actors get their chance to shine, particularly Lister as Jonathan explaining to his older son how his wants and needs changed as he got older and how that’s okay, and Morris as Ellie in a one-on-one with her mother where she gets to drop a line of dialogue that’s one of the most poignant things I’ve heard in a movie in a long time. Never Not Yours takes a bit to get going and its first 50 minutes are just fine, but that last half hour is downright great. Give this movie a chance to grow on you. | Jason Green
Never Not Yours will screen at the Chase Park Plaza Cinema (212 Kingshighway Blvd.) on Saturday, November 9 at 7:00 pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival 2024. Single film tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for Cinema St. Louis members and students with valid current photo IDs. Further information is available here.
