Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

I do not remember a film which so effectively walks its audience through what a woman seeking an abortion goes through, financially, emotionally, physically. I don't remember seeing a film that so deftly outlines all the hoops one jumps through, that's not really the right phrase, the ordeal that women are put through to make the choice they need to make, women who don't have the resources or independence to be able to make that choice.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is sensitive and powerful. It isn't filled with dramatic set pieces and instead focuses on walking its audience through the reality of the process, a process which can be almost impossible for so many reasons. Writer/director Hittman is methodical in her story, we are hit with each beat, understand the every struggle. Her film is empathic, often making us feel more than we are shown.

There is so much unsaid in Never Rarely Sometimes Always. So much of this story isn't said aloud and is in the faces of the performers. Flanigan especially does an amazing job of this, showing us so much while remaining so quiet. There is a moment in the middle of the film where the weight of it all comes bearing down on her which is immensely powerful while still remaining so quiet and restrained.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a much stronger film for me than Hittman's last, Beach Rats, a film which showed a lot of potential. But this one, with its determined forward thrust mixed with what appears to be Hittman's quiet slice of life signature approach, felt like the right mix to hit all the buttons.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Starring: Sindey Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Theodore Pellerin, Ryan Eggold
Writer/Director: Eliza Hittman