Never Rarely Sometimes Always Movie Storyline. Inseparable best friends and cousins Autumn and Skylar precariously navigate the vulnerability of female adolescence in rural Pennsylvania. When Autumn mysteriously falls pregnant, she’s confronted by conservative legislation without mercy for blue-collar women seeking an abortion. With Skylar’s unfailing support and bold resourcefulness, money to fund the procedure is secured and the duo board a bus bound for New York state to find the help Autumn needs.
Writer-director Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love, Beach Rats) masterfully creates a spartan cinematic language through gestures and details, where subtext is just as important as written dialogue. Cinematographer Hélène Louvart shoots on 16 mm film, evoking a grainy, bleak, and stark atmosphere, capturing the young actors, Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder (both discoveries), in intimate close-ups that accentuate the complexity of their natural, minimalist performances. With bracing clarity and understated emotion, Hittman fearlessly tells the story of a teenage girl making an arduous journey, through which a bigger statement emerges—that of reclaiming her body and her spirit.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a 2020 British-American drama film written and directed by Eliza Hittman. It stars Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin, Ryan Eggold and Sharon Van Etten. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020. It was also selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. The film was released in the United States on March 13, 2020, by Focus Features. It received widespread acclaim from critics.
About the Story
Seventeen-year-old Autumn Callahan suspects she is pregnant and goes to a crisis pregnancy center. At the center, she takes a drug store test that confirms that she is 10 weeks pregnant. Ambivalent on 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 Pennsylvania without parental consent, she tries to induce a miscarriage by swallowing pills and punching herself in the stomach. When those methods fail, she confides in her cousin, Skylar, that she is pregnant. Skylar steals cash from the grocery store where they work, and the two buy bus tickets to New York City.
On the bus they meet Jasper, 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 center lied to her about how far along she was 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.
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 counselor also asks her a series of questions about her sexual partners which reveal that Autumn’s partners have been physically and sexually abusive.
Out of money, Skylar realizes 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. Realizing Skylar is only going along with it for the loan, Autumn discreetly grabs Skylar’s hand to comfort her.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Directed by: Eliza Hittman
Starring: Sidney Flanigan, Ryan Eggold, Théodore Pellerin, Sharon Van Etten, Talia Ryder, Carolina Espiro, Lester Greene, Drew Seltzer, April Szykeruk, Aurora Richards, Brett Puglisi
Screenplay by: Eliza Hittman
Production Design by: Meredith Lippincott
Cinematography by: Hélène Louvart
Film Editing by: Scott Cummings
Costume Design by: Olga Mill
Art Direction by: Tommy Love
Music by: Julia Holter
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for disturbing/mature thematic content, language, some sexual references and teen drinking.
Distributed by: Focus Features
Release Date: March 13, 2020
Views: 42
