Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an award-winning, realistic, forceful film about the difficulty of obtaining an abortion in the US, directed by Eliza Hittman.
Women's Reproductive Wrongs
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
0.0 out of 5.0 stars
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) suspects she is pregnant and goes to a pregnaney advice centre. At the centre, she takes a drug-store test and is told that she is ten weeks pregnant. Ambivalent about her way forward, she is given literature on adoption and is shown an anti-abortion video.
After learning that she is unable to get an abortion in the state she lives in without parental consent, she tries to induce a miscarriage by swallowing pills and punching herself in the stomach. When those methods fail, in desperation she confides in her cousin and co-worker, Skylar (Talia Ryder, The Sweet East), that she is pregnant. Skylar steals cash from the grocery store where they both work, and the two buy bus tickets to New York City.
On the bus they meet Jasper (Théodore Pellerin), a young man who is persistently interested in Skylar even though she tries to blow him off.
At the Planned Parenthood clinic, Autumn learns that the crisis pregnancy centre lied to her and that she is actually 18 weeks pregnant. Though she is still able to get an abortion, she must go to a secondary clinic the following morning in order to have the abortion performed.
Because they have no money for a night at a hotel, Autumn and Skylar spend an uncomfortable night riding the subway and playing games at an arcade.
The following morning at the clinic, Autumn learns that a second-trimester abortion is a two-day procedure and that paying for the abortion will wipe out most of her funds. The counsellor also asks her a series of questions (hence the title) about her sexual partners which reveal that Autumn’s partners have been physically and sexually abusive.
Out of money, Skylar realises the two have no way of going home. As Autumn refuses to let Skylar call either of their mothers, Skylar reaches out to Jasper, who takes them bowling and to karaoke. At the end of the night, Skylar asks Jasper to loan them the money for their bus tickets, and he agrees. Skylar leaves with Jasper to find an ATM, and Autumn later goes looking for them. She finds them kissing. Realising Skylar is only going along with it for the loan, Autumn discreetly grabs Skylar’s hand to comfort her.
In the morning, Autumn goes to her appointment and has the abortion. Autumn and Skylar go to a restaurant, where Skylar asks her questions about the procedure, but Autumn remains vague. The two ride a bus back to Pennsylvania.
The film is unsparing, but never uncaring. The film doesn’t query the choice that Autumn has made, but neither is it polemically pro-abortion. It presents Autumn’s suffering in a highly realistic way. Both Autumn and Skylar are trying to cope with a world of predatory masculinity that surrounds them. It is particularly relevant and timely right now, given control of women’s reproductive rights in the US.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always premiered at Sundance, screened in Berlin, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize and is released on demand on 13 May 2020 in the UK.
