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Early in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” teenager Skylar asks her cousin Autumn, “Don’t you ever wish you were a dude?”

“All the time,” she replies. It’s not safe being a teenage girl out there in the world. This is inherently something people already know, but far fewer may comprehend.

Eliza Hittman’s 2020 indie darling “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” which she wrote and directed, burst onto the scene when it premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and received broad critical acclaim. The film competed for the Golden Bear at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival and received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. The film is an important and unflinchingly honest portrait of womanhood and what it feels like to not feel control over one’s body.

The story follows 17-year-old Autumn, who we first meet when she’s on stage at a high school talent show playing the guitar and singing. A boy from the audience shouts out the word “sl*t,” and the crowd breaks into laughter. Autumn pauses and continues, somehow finding the strength to push forward.

Later, Autumn suspects she might be pregnant, which is confirmed when she goes to a fertility clinic. She knows she wants an abortion, but the local fertility clinics and law in rural Pennsylvania are conservative and require her to get parental consent for an abortion. She knows her immediate family will not be supportive.

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From the beginning of the film, it is clear the empathy Hittman has for her characters. The film isn’t voyeuristic in nature, and Autumn’s portrayal isn’t completely helpless and miserable. When Autumn is seemingly all out of options, she enlists the help of her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder), and together they travel across state lines to New York City, where Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) can get an abortion without parental consent.

While they have differing personalities, the two women share a deep bond that is at most times non-verbal. The core of the film, and what gives a slight glimmer of hope to the viewer, is the relationship between Autumn and Skylar.

Relative newcomers Sidney Flanigan’s and Talia Ryder’s respective portrayals of Autumn and Skylar are incredibly powerful and compelling. The performances are subtle and understated.

Flanigan’s silent reserve is an active one, often in response to the pressure she is under and the fear of being judged by the people around her. Her silence speaks volumes about how society treats and marginalizes womens’ issues and reproductive rights, which can be seen when Autumn returns home and swallows a whole bottle of pills and repeatedly punches her stomach, all in an attempt to induce an abortion. It’s a harrowing and disturbing scene, but all too real.

Hittman’s presentation of her social commentary is similarly non-verbal. While the film’s pro-choice stance is clear, it never preaches its messages. Instead, Hittman chooses to place the viewer in the position of these two young girls and the incredibly difficult journey they endure.

It is because of this subdued style that the film feels honest and authentic. The events of the film are realistic and unfold honestly. Life is difficult enough. And within this realism, the film demonstrates and reflects how frightening and cruel the real world can be, which makes Autumn’s journey that much more powerful and utterly devastating.

“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” is a story of survival. It is an often difficult viewing experience and it offers no easy answers. It is an urgent and deeply affecting piece of filmmaking about young women trying to do what’s best for them in a world that is seemingly against them.

Published on March 31, 2021 at 8:40 pm