2020 In Review: Never Rarely Sometimes Always


The Abortion Movie to End All Abortion Movies

AKA: "Babies are bad and men are worse: The Movie!"


* * * * *

Perhaps the most mini-but-mighty picture of 2020, Eliza Hittman's abortion epic (two words that otherwise would never go together) is such an emotional gut punch for being something so small, that the film itself is practically an unborn fetus.

There's not much to say regarding the plot of Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Seventeen-year-old Autumn (newcomer Sidney Flanigan) finds out she's pregnant and travels from Pennsylvania to New York on a quest to have an abortion, because Pennsylvania abortion laws are strict AF. Autumn's equally teenaged cousin Skylar (also newcomer Talia Ryder) pals along for support, and together the two girls learn about the horrors of biased opinions on Planned Parenthood, braving the painstaking difficulties of the medical process, and they fight off a couple pervy dudes in the process. It's about as girl power as it sounds, albeit as quiet, low budget and indie as girl power can get.

So much of this movie is just Autumn going through different hoops, experiencing the skewed points of view of her pregnancy, while saying nothing at all. In pro-life Pennsylvania, a doctor shows Autumn the sonogram of her baby, blaring the sci-fi ultrasounds of the little heartbeat, stating "this is the most magical sound you will ever hear." Autumn simply turns away, tears in her eyes, and in that moment Flanigan gives the audience as authentic a performance of a troubled teenage girl as reality can give. Much of the film is simply other characters, mostly older women, attempting to sway Autumn's opinion; clinical professionals playing anti-abortion VHS tapes to state their truths, saying things like, "I'm a mother. I know these things."

Juxtaposed with Autumn's mission to be rid of her baby is doe-eyed cousin Skylar being quietly harassed by men who want to impregnate her (a bit dramatic wording but let's be honest, the creepy dude in his 40s at the cash register inviting the 17-year-old girl to his party probably isn't looking to make a new friend). All this drama comes to fruition just before the third act when Autumn sits with a New York doctor who provides a very personal questionnaire on the young girl's sexual history (in which the title of the film comes into play), and if Flanigan's tears didn't sell anyone during the sonogram scene (and by God, if Flanigan's tears doesn't make for the best sounding title for a Dropkick Murphy's song), this is the crucial moment Eliza Hittman's debut film becomes far more about rape and sexual resistance than it does about being an educational commentary on abortion.

On paper, NRSA doesn't sound like a film to jump at (recommending "an abortion movie" won't exactly make for a chummy family movie night, especially for little Tina who just got her first period), albeit it's a film that should be mandatory for every teenager to watch. The film may not seem special at first because it's not the story, but what writer-director Hittman does with the fragility of these remarkable girls, mostly in their silent expressions, that will linger long past the temporary pro-life outcry of such a delicate subject. If handled differently, the film could have come across as preachy, pro-choice propaganda. Be as it may, this is a film that shines most through its very awkward realism; the seemingly insignificant moments when the girls are drunkenly singing karaoke at a bowling alley, calling their moms from the bathroom stall, or holding each other's hands to show the other boys that sex is off the table (not today, Ronald McRaperson!). 

This is a film entirely about very real moments for two extremely fractured young women, in which the two leading ladies are not only convincing, but Hittman knows exactly how to dig out the quiet performances needed to stamp Never Rarely Sometimes Always as perhaps the most pivotal abortion movie ever made, which least to say merits it as one of the better films, if not the single most important film of 2020.


*10 points to Eliza Hittman

Grade: A

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