The Movie: Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The Director: Eliza Hittman
The Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin, Ryan Eggold, Sharon Van Etten
The Story: A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.
The Review:
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a very candid look into a young girl's life at a very pivotal moment of her teenage years. Sidney Flanigan, in her debut feature performance, plays Autumn who has just found out she is pregnant and decides to have an abortion. I love the raw and authentic way that she approaches the character, there's no heavy dramatics or unnecessary theatrics, Autumn is just a girl who knows exactly what she feels she needs to do yet has no idea how to get there. This is powerful stuff, especially for a debut performance. What an amazing way to announce your arrival. Did I mention she's also a great singer?
Along the way Autumn is joined by her cousin Skylar, played by Tali Ryder, who stays by her side as she decides what to do with the pregnancy. What was most interesting for me was to see the entire movie truly and authentically from the girls' perspective which was rather eye opening especially as they are navigating the streets and subways of New York city. This perspective is unfortunately unique when it comes to mainstream or even indie cinema and there really needs to be more stories like this and more female story tellers to tell them.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a powerful experience and the kind of story telling we need to see right now. Eliza Hittman sets aside heavy handed story telling and theatrics to make a bold statement that says this is what our teenage girls lives look like right now.
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