Never Seldom Sometimes Always

Movie
German title	Never Seldom Sometimes Always
Original title	Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Country of production	USA , UK
original language	English
Publishing year	2020
length	102 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Eliza Hittman
script	Eliza Hittman
production	Lia Buman , ; Rose Garnett , ; Tim Headington , ; Sara Murphy , ; Alex Orlovsky , ; Elika Portnoy , ; Adele Romanski
music	Julia Holter
camera	Hélène Louvart
cut	Scott Cummings
occupation
	Sidney Flanigan : Autumn; Talia Ryder : Skylar; Ryan Eggold : Autumn's stepfather; Sharon Van Etten : Autumn's mother; Théodore Pellerin : Jaspar; Drew Seltzer : Manager Rick;

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Original title: Never Rarely Sometimes Always ) is a film drama by Eliza Hittman , which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 and was shown in the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival from February 25, 2020 . It was released in North American cinemas on March 13, 2020 and is scheduled to hit German cinemas on October 1, 2020. In the film, 17-year-old Autumn becomes pregnant. Because parental consent law prevents her from having an abortion, she and her cousin Skylar travel from their small town in Pennsylvania to New York to find unbureaucratic help.

action

17-year-old Autumn Callahan lives in rural Pennsylvania, has two younger siblings and, like her three-year-old cousin Skylar, works as a cashier in a supermarket. After her period has been off for a long time, she goes to the health center in her small town to find out. After she receives a pregnancy test there, which can be obtained in any supermarket, her suspicion that she is pregnant is confirmed. She receives information brochures from Beth, if she wants to put the child up for adoption or needs help with the upbringing, but nothing about an abortion . When she asked about this possibility a little later, she was shown a video about the “hard truth” of this intervention. Since under 18-year-olds in Pennsylvania need parental consent to have an abortion, she tries to lose the child with hard blows on her stomach. When she vomits at work, she tells her cousin about her pregnancy and that she doesn't want to keep the child. Skylar steals some cash from their shift, they pack some clothes and take the early morning bus to New York .

When 17-year-old Autumn becomes pregnant, she drives to New York with her cousin Skylar. One of the film's locations: the Borough Hall Station exit

At the first point of contact, she learns that she is already in the 18th week of pregnancy, and not in the tenth, as she was told at the health center in her city. An abortion is therefore not possible there, which is why Autumn is referred to an abortion clinic in Manhattan. There she learns that the procedure will take two days and that they will have to stay in New York overnight. Afraid that her parents might find out about the abortion if it is billed through health insurance, she takes all the money to pay the bill.

Before the procedure, the counselor Kelly asks her a few questions about her sex life and also questions to clarify whether she will find a safe environment at home after the abortion. She should answer with Never , Rarely , Sometimes and Always . Autumn states that she first had sex when she was 14 and has slept with six men since then. When asked if she has ever been forced to have sex by a man, she bursts into tears and cannot answer. The counselor explains to her how the abortion will work and offers her to be present during the procedure. On the first day, a metallic foreign body is inserted into Autumn.

Since she spent all the money on the abortion and is now missing for the return trip, Skylar contacts the only person in New York she knows. They had met a young man on the bus and exchanged phone numbers. After a few hours together in town, Skylar makes up his mind to ask him for money for the return trip. After some smooching with Skylar, he gives her this too. The next day, the second part of Autumn's abortion takes place under anesthesia. Skylar wants to know how it went and what feelings she has now, and they take the bus back to Pennsylvania.

production

Director Eliza Hittman with the leading actresses Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder at the presentation of the film at the Berlinale 2020

Directed by Eliza Hittman , who also wrote the screenplay. Hittman got the idea for the film in 2012 after reading the story of Savita Halappanavar, who was denied an abortion in Ireland after an incomplete miscarriage and who subsequently died of blood poisoning. In Ireland, Hittman learned, women seeking abortions were traveling to London for a day. The filmmaker wondered what such a trip would look like and researched that one in five women in the United States has to drive more than 50 miles to have such an operation, and in rural areas it is more than half of all unwanted pregnant women, like Autumn in the film.

Sidney Flanigan plays Autumn, Talia Ryder her cousin Skylar. The American singer and songwriter Sharon Van Etten plays Autumn's mother, Ryan Eggold her stepfather and Drew Seltzer the supermarket manager Rick, for whom the two girls work. Théodore Pellerin plays Jaspar, the young man they met on the bus to New York. Hittman has a real social worker ask the questions in the key scene.

As in Hittman's last feature film Beach Rats , French Hélène Louvart acted as camerawoman .

Singer-songwriter Julia Holter contributes the film music . The soundtrack album, which comprises a total of 13 pieces of music, was released for download on March 13, 2020 by Back Lot Music. It also includes the song Staring at a Mountain , which is sung by actress Sharon Van Etten during the credits and was written by her. The song was released as a single download at the same time.

The film premiered on January 24, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival . From February 25, 2020, the film was shown in the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival . The film was released in selected North American cinemas on March 13, 2020. In mid-September 2020 it will be presented at the Leipzig Film Art Fair before it will be released in German cinemas on October 1, 2020.

reception

Age ratings and reviews

In the US, the film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA . In Germany the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 6.

So far, the film has won over 99 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.6 out of a possible 10 points. With 3.4 out of four possible stars, Never Rarely Sometimes Always also topped the international reviews of the British trade magazine Screen International for all 18 Berlinale competition films .

Variety's Andrew Barker writes that Eliza Hittman's script is a miracle of thrift and never wastes time adding to relationship details or backstories . The most obvious way of showing this is by never getting to know the father of Autumn's unborn child. It becomes clear in the film that this journey is one of the biggest and scariest things Autumn has ever undertaken, but even if the film is a bit gloomy at first, it is easy to imagine that she can more or less resume her life like this , as before.

Even David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter noted that Hittman has removed all unnecessary details in their script. As a viewer, you can first find out about the pregnancy from a simple picture of her slight belly bulge, before this is confirmed in a local women's clinic. The terribly lonely situation in which she finds herself runs through the film like a sad undertone, but this is offset by the warmth of Skylar, who is more like a sister than a cousin, while Autumn is never hers Confide in mother. Flanigan was a real discovery, who skillfully incorporated her musical background at the beginning of the film and later in a karaoke bar scene in which she sang Gerry and the Pacemakers Don't into a breathtakingly nuanced acting debut, according to Rooney . Ryder is just as captivating, and the harmonious chemistry between the two gives the film a gentle emotional train.

Kate Erbland from IndieWire also recognizes the connection between Autumn and Skylar as the beating heart of Never Rarely Sometimes Always . While the film deals with the complicated abortion laws in the United States and the work of the medical professionals who are tasked with enforcing them, it is not just a film drama, but takes a unique look at what it means to be a young girl today be, with all the joy and pain that comes with it. The film may be remembered by many viewers and even change their long-cherished beliefs, said Erbland.

Anna Wollner from Rbb24 writes that the teenage abortion drama doesn't just show Trump's America, but is a manifesto for female cohesion: “A real pearl of feminist cinema.” Above all, it is the nuances that work, the speechless communication between Autumn and Skylar . Eliza Hitman looks closely, and she observes without judgment. The girls are not victims, but they are trapped in their imposed by the male-dominated society role, yet the federal government of women is stronger than any male assault, and moving, tender, stronger and truer than Never Rarely Sometimes Always have one that in I haven't seen the cinema for a long time.

Nadine Lange from Tagesspiegel writes that the film conveys the fragile position of its protagonists with immense urgency and also tells of the everyday MeToo reality of young women.

Jens Balkenborg from epd Film explains that the film needs few words and that the connection between the two women is clear from the time Skylar knows and there is a silent agreement. No one has approached the subject of abortion in such an honest, tough, touching and multi-layered way as Hittman.

Also Andreas Borcholte of Spiegel Online thinks just the absence of explanatory dialogues do Hittmans film so vividly: "It is sufficient to show a misogynist, oppositional environment to understand why Autumn is forced to take drastic measures."