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Never Rarely Sometimes Always
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Never Rarely Sometimes Always inhabits a mode of low-key but relentlessly accumulating naturalism
familiar from the Dardennes or contemporary Romanian cinema. The cinematography
of Hélène Louvart (echoing her work on another teen film with a similar mood,
Héléna Klotz’s excellent Atomic Age [2012]) is crisp and understated.
Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) is a teenager who needs to
travel from Pennsylvania to New York in order to get an abortion without her
parents’ knowledge; her friend Skylar (Talia Ryder) accompanies her.
There are no explanatory flashbacks, just a few hints
of backstory. Through the drag of several days and nights, through endless
rides on bus and train, dealing with troublesome handicaps (like lack of
money), the women push on, not saying much. A quasi-cool boy, Jasper (Théodore
Pellerin), enters the action; he counts as – in every sense – a minor player,
of limited and strictly functional significance.
There is no overt melodrama, only a touch of suspense
– Eliza Hittman (who made the impressive It
Felt Like Love [2013]) avoids any sensationalism. There are passing
characters in official positions (doctors, nurses, train station guards), but
they are never demonised; they, too, are just ordinary people trying to do
their jobs in conditions of daily difficulty.
The film’s dramatic centre is deliberately displaced, yet
hidden in plain sight, allowed to slowly rise to the surface: it is the toxic
masculine culture that expresses itself in offhand actions, words, exchanges
and pressures. At the heart of the story, a tell-tale, wordless gesture shared
between the women expresses everything left unspoken.
© Adrian Martin September 2020 |
