After providing a hypnotic and evocative examination of a working class man struggling with masculinity and his own homosexuality in Beach Rats, director-writer Eliza Hittman returns with another powerful character drama.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always follows the sullen but defiant 17-year-old Autumn Callahan (Sidney Flanigan), a resourceful working class girl who is bullied by her classmates and treated with contempt by her father figure.
However, Autumn faces another difficult complication in her life when she suspects that she is pregnant. Attending a crisis pregnancy centre, her suspicions are confirmed.
Realising that in Pennsylvania she cannot have her desired abortion without parental consent, Autumn decides to head to New York to terminate her pregnancy.
Despite her difficult journey, Autumn is accompanied by her supportive cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) and so a painful and reflective adventure begins.
Hittman’s film is a searing indictment of reproductive rights in the US despite its sparse approach to the issues at hand.
Through the grounding of the topic of abortion in Autumn’s journey, we can’t help but feel her awkwardness as staff at the pregnancy centre force her to watch pro-life videos without her consent or her dealing with protesters outside abortion clinics.
Yet, Hittman’s script never forces social commentary down the throats of viewers in what is no doubt a difficult topic for many.
Autumn’s own past and inner turmoil is also kept at arm’s length, for as the film progresses we learn more about her experiences and naturally begin to understand her decisions through Hittman's deft touch.
Arguably the central scene of the film that gives the piece its title carefully probes but doesn't interrogate Autumn’s choices and her fraught journey so far, keeping the camera pinned on our heroine’s increasingly vulnerable facial expressions throughout.
Sidney Flanigan gives a brittle and nuanced turn as a young woman struggling with the weight of the world on her shoulders, with an understated but lovable uncertainty from Talia Ryder as her only companion in her hardship.
In fact, the strength in this relationship, even as they face difficulties, is most powerful in what is unsaid.
The sweet chemistry between the two actresses is ever more apparent as the film goes on and a sub-plot develops around a stranger who takes an interest in Skylar, played by Boy Erased actor Théodore Pellerin in a slippery performance.
In fact, the pair’s friendship and support of each other is a hopeful beacon amidst the harsh realism of Hittman's kitchen-sink style.
There isn't a part of the process of seeking a termination in the US that the director doesn't take us through alongside Autumn, leaving the audience with a film they won’t easily shake-off.
As such, Hittman's uncompromising and economic style may not rest well with some, but Never Rarely Sometimes Always proves that the director is an expert at portraying the pain and loneliness of adolescence alongside universally relevant social issues.
Verdict
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is affecting and uncompromising cinema and a powerful character study of a troubled young woman seeking an abortion. Director Eliza Hittman is a talent worth seeking out whilst in lockdown.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is released on digital on May 13, 2020 and is available on VOD from May 27, 2020.
What films have moved you been during the lockdown? Let us know in the comments below.
