THIS TOO SHALL PASS (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

This Too Shall Pass, Blue Fox Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 23, 2025

This Too Shall Pass doesn't hide its inspirations. They're the teen comedies of the 1980s, especially the ones about assorted misfits and outcasts figuring out their lives while in detention, before a birthday party, on an adventure in a big city, and basically any other example that instantly springs to mind. The characters of writer/director Rob Grant's movie have seen those movies, too, so there's another layer of artificiality to add to this well-meaning but shallow affair.

The setting is the late '80s, when Simon (Maxwell Jenkins), a Mormon teenager living in Syracuse, New York, doesn't entirely feel as if his own life is under his control. After all, his family, especially Simon's father (played by Robert Longstreet), expect him to uphold all the tenets of their faith and lead an upstanding life in general.

Meanwhile, Simon just wants to spend time with his friends, sneak some alcoholic drinks and marijuana, and stay out later than the curfew set up at his house. Simon really has to hide his normal-teen activities, since his family is strict enough in their religious convictions to believe that even a sip of coffee could be enough to condemn one to hell. Imagine if they knew Simon was only pretending to go to baseball practice so that he could drink beer with his buddies in a basement.

This early setup holds some promise, to be sure. Grant establishes a recognizable and grounded backdrop, a down-to-earth conflict, and a group of characters whose initially broad qualities and eccentricities suggest there could be more to them.

Simon's pals include high school football player Chris (Jeremy Ray Taylor), whose position on the team means the group might be invited to parties and be able to meet girls, and Tim (Ben Cockell), whose music taste and fashion sense lean heavily toward period's new wave. The other two are John (Aidan Laprete), who's a bit of a clown and whose mother's parenting style is of the more permissive variety, and James (Jaylin Webb), a movie buff who finds all of those aforementioned examples to be quite phony.

Unfortunately, the eventual plot here drops that sense of familiarity and any real opportunity to get to know most of these characters on a deeper level. That starts when Simon meets Shelly (Nikki Roumel) while hanging out in John's basement with his pals. The two of them talk, and he calls her hoping to spend more time together. All of this, though, aligns with Simon's father discovering that his son is participating in some ungodly behavior, deciding that he'll be coming on a church outing, and hanging up on Shelly when she calls after 7:00 in the evening—without getting the phone number of where she'll be staying on a trip to her grandparents' house in Canada.

Simon decides to surprise Shelly, since she offhandedly mentioned that her trip to Ottawa would probably be more fun if he was there, so he steals the cash for the church excursion and recruits his four friends to take the bus to Canada. Nothing goes according to plan, mainly because Simon doesn't know Shelly well enough to even know her mother's maiden name to find the grandparents in the local phone book.

Most of this, then, revolves around a series of misadventures and other antics, as the gang is robbed almost immediately upon arriving in Canada, have to find ways to get or steal cash in order to have a place to sleep and a way to party, wind up getting into trouble with some jerks at a local bar, and some other stuff, too. By the way, the entire story revolves around a framing device, in which Simon tells his tale to the cop (played by Chris Sandiford) who has arrested him, that even the characters announce to be clichéd, on-the-nose, and not particularly interesting. Just because a movie can and does point out its flaws doesn't mean it has somehow transcended them.

To be fair, there are some worthwhile, more personal moments here, mainly one that has Simon talking to Misty (Katie Douglas), who helps him steal some records to sell and who is far more engaging in a handful of scenes than Simon is for the entirety of the movie, and another in which Tim tries to open up to a stranger about his sexuality. As for the rest of the friends, they, apparently, mainly exist here so that the movie can better superficially fit the mold of the ones that inspired it.

The movie is far too broad in its humor, its themes, and, especially, its characters to feel unique or say anything insightful. This Too Shall Pass is a thin copy of other, similar movies.

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