Frizzell lived teen angst tale in her movie

Since the dawn of cinema, there have been films about young men behaving badly, like National Lampoon's Animal House. For some reason, audiences react differently when girls try to get their share of what's in a bong.

"A double standard, maybe? I didn't think that it was so extreme until after I made the movie," writer-director Augustine Frizzell says by phone from Texas.

Frizzell's debut feature Never Goin' Back follows a pair of teenage waitresses named Angela (Maia Mitchell) and Jessie (Camila Morrone) who struggle through a precarious existence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Even though neither has reached 18, their parents are nowhere in sight. Neither has a car.

The two have a simple goal: They want to save their earnings so they can celebrate Jessie's birthday on the beach in Galveston instead of toking in the room they rent with equally cash-strapped young guys.

NO PLACE LIKE NO HOME

Naturally, even this modest aspiration becomes a challenge in a haze of temptation and rotten luck. Much of the tale came from Frizzell's own teen experiences.

" It was based on my life and my experience as a teenager growing up in Dallas, Texas," she says. "Ninety percent of the film happened in my real life. I was trying for that which would evoke my memory of growing up without a car, riding the bus here in Texas. It's so sticky, and it's so hot, and you're having to walk everywhere. And it's gross by the time you get to your destination."

Angela and Jessie receive less than minimal guidance from their elders. You can count the "grown-ups" in Never Goin' Back on the fingers of one hand. The movie is reminiscent of Peanuts cartoons where the adults are never on camera and are only heard as "wah-wah-wah-wah-wah."

"There are very few adults on purpose. I think that's how it felt for me as a teen growing up in those circumstances. It really felt like we were on our own, and that the people around us that were grown weren't necessarily on our side or didn't have the means or the time to invest in us," Frizzell recalls. This may explain why the duo get wasted at inappropriate times.

"If you have the backstory that they had, their parents have abandoned them. They didn't really have another option," she says. "They're 16 years old. They're teens with no parents. What do you expect?"

Nonetheless, Angela and Jessie seem like Harvard MBAs compared to the guys in their lives. For one thing, they hold jobs that don't involve illicit chemicals, and they understand some domestic necessities that young men sometimes ignore. In Frizzell's DFW and my Little Rock and Kansas City, men in their teens and 20s rarely stocked toilet paper. The film features a constant pursuit of that commodity.

"We never bought toilet paper," Frizzell laughs. "We would always go to public bathrooms and steal it. It just seemed too expensive for something you were just going to throw down the toilet. So sad! I've used coffee filters instead of paper towels."

This also might explain why the clothes and the banter in Never Goin' Back don't initially seem dated. Some things, no matter how regrettable, don't change.

"My goal setting out was that this could have taken place in the '90s. It could have been modern day," she says. "I wanted to have it feel like it had a distinct setting, not a specific time, but with its own specific feel."

If her characters seem relatable and realistic, Frizzell admits her story is a hard sell and that its stoner feminism appears to have been afterthought.

"I thought that if I'm going to make a movie and it's going to exist, at least I should like it. The chance that other people won't like it are great, especially with comedies, because so many people dislike comedies. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, they're the worst reviewed. Humor is such a specific thing from person to person, so I just wanted to like it myself, and I do," she says.

"Once I made it the response has been crazy. There is also the fact that I'm making it at a time when in our culture more people are paying attention and trying to see things from a certain perspective that may not have been there before. You'd think that that would open people's minds up to it, and it has for some, but it has had some backlash."

IN HER BLOOD

Perhaps Frizzell and her characters have survived because creativity is in her genes.

If her surname sounds familiar, it's because her grandfather was one time El Dorado-resident and Country Music Hall of Famer William "Lefty" Frizzell. He's best known for "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time," and he died two years before the future filmmaker was born.

"My dad was a musician. All of his side of the family were creative types. To me that's just what you did. My dad pursued music. He was a DJ. I don't think I ever thought I would have a normal job. I always thought I would be part of entertainment," she recalls.

Frizzell is also married to writer-director-editor David Lowery, who has helmed Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Pete's Dragon and A Ghost Story. If her fellow Texan has influenced her own movie, it's hard to see where. Frizzell's movie has an almost documentary-like feel compared to the dreamlike quality or her husband's movies.

"We have very different styles, which is good," she says. "You really can't have a comparison between the two."

MovieStyle on 08/24/2018

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