Review: Never Rarely Sometimes Always
I didn’t have a chance to catch up with Eliza Hittman’s 2017 Sundance hit, Beach Rats, before watching her most recent project, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, but I was so glad to be introduced to her work through this beautiful film. Hittman has a way of holding the camera on her actors or brushing by them at just the right time and in just the right way to make the most impact.
When small town teenager, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) learns she’s pregnant, she decides to scrounge for money to take a trip to New York to have an abortion. The rural Pennsylvania town she lives in doesn’t provide the option and she’s too terrified to tell her parents. She’s supported by her cousin, Skylar, who takes the trip with her (Taia Ryder). Flanigan and Ryder are relative newcomers, but you wouldn’t know it based on the acting master class they give in this film.
The film moves slowly and deliberately as the girls are faced with decisions and situations well beyond their years. Hittman has a subtle way of pulling us in as Autumn and Skylar navigate one challenge after the next. It’s a reality that many young girls face and Hittman gives us an opportunity to sympathize with a girl at the end of her rope through her careful storytelling.