PHOTO : FOCUS FEATURES / COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
The pandemic shutdown damaged the theatrical release of Eliza Hittman’s third feature, Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
But it confirmed the writer-director as a major talent in American independent cinema.
The film traces a Pennsylvania teen’s odyssey through the bustle and cacophony of New York in order to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Visually, the film is steeped in a naturalism that’s low-key yet captivating; there’s never a dull moment, even when the tale is silent.
It introduces two exceptionally gifted actors who etch an indelible portrait of friendship — Sidney Flanigan as the resilient high schooler who needs the procedure, and Talia Ryder as the cousin who goes to all lengths for her.
In her readiness to meet a charged issue head-on, and her melding of civic alarm with a nicely observed coming-of-age narrative, Hittman took the American abortion drama to another (higher) level.
The resonance of this quiet film exceeded its intimate scale even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Indie Cinema 2020: Films That Matter–Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Eliza Hittman’s Abortion Drama
The pandemic shutdown damaged the theatrical release of Eliza Hittman’s third feature, Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
But it confirmed the writer-director as a major talent in American independent cinema.
The film traces a Pennsylvania teen’s odyssey through the bustle and cacophony of New York in order to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Visually, the film is steeped in a naturalism that’s low-key yet captivating; there’s never a dull moment, even when the tale is silent.
It introduces two exceptionally gifted actors who etch an indelible portrait of friendship — Sidney Flanigan as the resilient high schooler who needs the procedure, and Talia Ryder as the cousin who goes to all lengths for her.
In her readiness to meet a charged issue head-on, and her melding of civic alarm with a nicely observed coming-of-age narrative, Hittman took the American abortion drama to another (higher) level.
The resonance of this quiet film exceeded its intimate scale even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.