Butler's Cinema Scene

Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder

“NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS”  My rating: B 

101 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

A hot-button issue gets minimalist treatment in Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”

Yet despite the austerity of Hittman’s effort, this is a film that hooks us emotionally and intellectually.

Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) is a high schooler in small-town Pennsylvania. When we first meet her she’s singing at a local open-mic showcase.

After the performance she and her family (her mom is played by Sharon Van Etten, the singer; her vaguely indifferent stepdad by Ryan Eggold) decamp to a local restaurant. At an adjacent table a group of teenage boys are hanging out.   Autumn takes offense at something they’re doing and tosses her drink on one of them.

What’s that all about?   We follow Autumn to a clinic where she’s told she’s 10 weeks pregnant and treated to an anti abortion video.  She learns that as a minor in Pennsylvania she must get a parent’s permission before having an abortion.

And so in the dead of night Autumn and her supportive cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) grab a bus to the Big Apple where there are fewer restrictions.

What is supposed to be a one-day trip turns into something rather more complicated.  The Planned Parenthood doctor tells Autumn she’s more like 20 weeks gone; that’ll mean a two-day procedure and a longer stay in NYC.  Strapped for money the girls will basically have to spend a night bumming around the city.

Sidney Flanagan

Hittman’s film — a sensation at this year’s Sundance Fest — feels almost more like a documentary than a drama.  The story unfolds with little exposition (like a lot of teens, Autumn is loathe to reveal what’s going on inside) and a matter-of-factness that belies the incendiary nature of the subject matter. (One assumes the filmmakers are for women’s rights in the reproductive arena, but none of the dialogue comes close to climbing on a soapbox.)

The film’s emotional high point comes in a long, uninterrupted take in which Autumn is asked a series of questions about her sex life by a Planned Parenthood clerk.  She must choose her answers from four responses:  Never. Rarely. Sometimes. Always.

The camera never leaves Autumn’s face as she ponders the queries.  A lot of the material is routine — When did you first have sex?  How many partners? Vaginal? Oral? Anal? — but when the subject turns to abuse Autumn’s lower lip quivers and tears well.

Clearly this kid has been through some heavy stuff.  The moment is quietly shattering.

If the film avoids a debate on abortion, it’s not shy about setting its sights on male privilege and misbehavior.

Repeatedly in their journey the cousins experience varying degrees of chauvinism, from the leering manager of the big box store where they work as cashiers to the geeky but vaguely predatory kid (Theodore Pellerin) whom they meet on the bus ride and who treats them to all-night tour of Manhattan…provided he gets a bit of makeout time with Skyler.

The performances are borderline incredible precisely because they almost never feel like performances.  Flanagan and Ryder have never before acted.  Here they’re not so much playing roles as just being.

| Robert W. Butler