Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    EA Sports Madden NFL 26 Head Coach But Why Tho 5

    Dear EA Sports, Why Can’t I Make A Hot Coach?

    08/14/2025
    Blade in Marvel Rivals Season 3.5

    Blade Can Shut Down The Other Team In Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 If You Know How

    08/08/2025
    John Cena and Cody Rhodes during Summerslam 2025

    The SummerSlam 2025 Main Event Was A Fever Dream We All Needed

    08/08/2025
    Street Fighter 6 Sagat

    Sagat Brings Depth And Approachability To ‘Street Fighter 6’

    08/07/2025
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
  • Indie Games
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Apple TV+
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » OUTFEST LA 2022: The Pain of Endings in ‘Maybe Someday’

OUTFEST LA 2022: The Pain of Endings in ‘Maybe Someday’

Jason FlattBy Jason Flatt07/07/20224 Mins ReadUpdated:07/09/2022
Maybe Someday - But Why Tho
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Maybe Someday - But Why Tho

Endings can be really hard. Especially when we’re not willing to accept that they’re truly endings in the first place. Outfest LA Film Festival 2022 entry Maybe Someday by and starring Michelle Ehlen muses on just that. Jay (Ehlen) is freshly separated from her wife Lily (Jeneen Robinson) and moves in with her childhood best friend Jess (Shaela Cook), who she hasn’t seen in quite some time.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Just to start with, this movie is hilarious. I laughed out loud more watching Maybe Someday more than perhaps anything I’ve watched recently. Amidst all the difficulties Jay goes through throughout the movie, it’s refreshing that there are so many opportunities to laugh. And not to laugh at anybody’s expense either. The outlandish and brash Tommy (Chad Steers), who Jay meets as he’s giving terrible stand-up at a church, could well be the victim of plenty of cheap jokes. But instead, there’s just time after time where the two of them are simply living and breathing, which provides a great number of laughs just by being.

But just being is hard, especially for folks like Jay who are really in their own heads (relatable). The bulk of Jay’s troubles derives from her difficulty accepting things for what they are. Not that it’s her fault necessarily. She’s led on, and people around her can be oblivious and cruel. And her challenge with being fully cognizant of where she stands with other people isn’t because she’s ignorant; it’s just that she isn’t willing to accept what she perhaps already knows (relatable). This is so brilliantly portrayed by Ehlen as a number of argumentative scenes behold a level to them wherein the sharpness of Jay’s responses betray her.

Really, all of Ehlen’s acting, from the painfully awkward first encounter she endures with Jess’s daughter Ava (Caroline Lobbin) to her wonderful drag debut, show somebody who is suffering but also who is aware of that and who doesn’t want to be. Watching that journey is wonderful as it fits into a genre I’ve begun describing as coming-of-age as an adult. It’s the same type of journey of self-discovery you get in movies about teens and young adults but with somebody whose age is rarely shown as still malleable and deserving of opportunities for growth.

A great kudos to the actors who play the younger Jay (Eliza Blair) and Jess (Cameron Norman) as well. Their scenes are some of the highlights of the movie. Blair, in particular, plays such an excellent version of Jay, giving the same awkwardness as Ehlen and repeatedly making me cringe in the best way with how just unable to express herself she is. These scenes are woven in at all the right times and do more than I feel many movies with flashbacks do to give one cohesive picture of Jay as a person who struggles to express and Jess, who simply doesn’t see anything before at any given time.

Another brilliant aspect of Maybe Someday is its camerawork. It begins in this almost disembodied first-person view that immediately drowns you in awkwardness from an emotionless introduction to Jess. I don’t know whether it’s meant to put us on her bad side to begin with or if it’s just a factor of retrospect, but it’s an opening that immediately puts you in Jay’s shoes and gives you all of every feeling she’s going through at once. It’s quite like the intro to a bad first-person porno in both its reading and its delivery—you’re deeply uncomfortable but also maybe titillated? There’s only one way to find out!

There are a number of other well-shot moments, including some repetitive shower shots that glob on the melancholy. Most notably, there is an excellent edit early on as well that bridges moments from the present with the past that I wish has been not necessarily repeated but at least given to inspiration for other creative edits between flashbacks. The way it was done just added a lot of suspense and emotion to the moment that a more straightforward cut probably would not have.

Maybe Someday is not a complicated piece of work, but the emotions of letting go certainly are. It so well, through two entire sets of actors, depicts the challenge of accepting when things need to change and the joy of allowing them to.

Maybe Someday will have its LA premiere at Outfest 2022 on July 23rd.

Maybe Someday
  • 7/10
    Rating - 7/10
7/10

TL;DR

Maybe Someday is not a complicated piece of work, but the emotions of letting go certainly are. It so well, through two entire sets of actors, depicts the challenge of accepting when things need to change and the joy of allowing them to.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleMonster Battler Coromon Sets Sights On July 21 Switch Release
Next Article REVIEW: ‘The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting,’ Episode 1 – “The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting”
Jason Flatt
  • X (Twitter)

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.

Related Posts

Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa in The Map That Leads to You
8.0

REVIEW: ‘The Map That Leads To You’ Is YA Romance Done Right

08/19/2025
Lurker promotional still from MUBI
10.0

REVIEW: ‘Lurker’ Probes The Intoxication Of Fame

08/19/2025
The Knife (2025) promotional still
7.0

REVIEW: ‘The Knife’ Is Simple And Too Much At The Same Time

08/17/2025
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

08/16/2025
Fixed promotional key art from Netflix Animation
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Fixed’ Is Top-Notch Animation But Bottom Of The Barrel Comedy

08/15/2025
Denzel Washington Highest 2 Lowest
7.0

REVIEW: ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Has A Ton Of Fun Missing It’s Own Points

08/15/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

By Sarah Musnicky08/16/2025Updated:08/17/2025

It is understandable how Shin Godzilla succeeded at the box office nearly a decade ago. The strength of its story still stands today.

Botanical Bliss Update Palia But Why Tho 5 News

Palia’s New Botanical Bliss Update Brings New Flora, Decorations, And Quest Mechanic

By Matt Donahue08/18/2025Updated:08/18/2025

The Botanical Bliss update adds new event, more plushes, and a host of quality-of-life improvements and more to celebrate 2 years of Palia.

BOOTS Netflix First Look promotional images News

First Look at Coming-of-Age Story BOOTS, Coming to Netflix This October

By But Why Tho?08/17/2025

Netflix is reporting for duty this fall with the new eight-episode series BOOTS, a comedic drama starring Miles Heizer and Vera Farmiga

Nuestra Magia Secret Lair Art Interviews

EXCLUSIVE: How The ‘Nuestra Magia’ Secret Lair Found Its Identity And Raised Over $1M

By Kate Sánchez08/15/2025Updated:08/15/2025

We spoke with Ovidio Cartagena about Magic: The Gathering’s Nuestra Magia Secret Lair drop, its impact, and the real treasure within.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here