Never Rarely Sometimes Always and the Female Experience
Director Eliza Hittman’s 2020 drama movie Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a horror movie in disguise that reflects the reality of most women in America, especially ringing true in the aftermath of the overruling of Roe v. Wade. The movie follows Autumn, a pregnant teenager, as she races against time and travels from her rural town in Pennsylvania to New York to get an abortion, with her cousin Skylar tagging along and offering support. However, while the movie details a teenager’s struggles with her unwanted pregnancy, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is more than a “teen pregnancy movie” – it is a representation of the female experience, about being a woman in a man’s world. The movie is extremely powerful, poignant, and tragically honest, because the trials and tribulations both Autumn and Skylar go through are universal for every woman.
Throughout the movie, a predator-prey dynamic between men and women is at play. The opening scene of the movie is a high-school talent show where Autumn sings “He’s Got the Power” by the Exciters, a forceful song about coercion and manipulation, only to be heckled by a boy — a classmate or peer whose true identity and relation to Autumn the audience never learns – who calls her a “slut.” Autumn’s stepfather Ted refuses to congratulate her performance, and later on in the movie, in a very disturbing and uncomfortable scene, pets the family dog, calls her a “little slut” and says that “she likes it,” all while eyeing an unsettled Autumn. Furthermore, the boss of the local supermarket, where Autumn and Skylar work, harasses the two girls regularly, kissing their hands every time he gives them their salaries. But the wrongdoings of men are not constrained to rural Pennsylvania; they also resume in New York. On their journey, the girls meet a young man named Jasper who persistently pursues an underaged Skylar despite her polite yet obvious disinterest. On the New York subway, a man masturbates while ogling the duo.
“Don’t you just wish you were a dude?” – Skylar
Furthermore, exacerbating this tense predator-prey dynamic, the audience realizes the truth about Autumn’s pregnancy during the heartbreaking climax of the movie. The counselor at the abortion clinic, Kelly, asks Autumn a series of questions she must answer as either never, rarely, sometimes, or always – also giving the film its impactful name. The scene is an uninterrupted camera montage focusing solely on Autumn’s face, where the audience progressively witnesses her eyes well with tears and her walls come crashing down.
“Has someone hit you, slapped you or physically hurt you?”
“Has your partner made you have sex when you didn’t want to?”
“Has anyone forced you into a sexual act, ever, in your lifetime?”
Autumn’s answer to all of these questions is a devastating yes, implying that her pregnancy is a result of rape. Kelly does not push it any further, instead simply offering her number in case Autumn would like to talk about it or reach out for support. The movie leaves it ambiguous as to who Autumn’s abuser is, though the audience might have two guesses: the heckling boy from the talent show or Autumn’s stepdad.
The movie ends on a seemingly optimistic note, with Autumn succeeding in getting the abortion. Skylar and Autumn have breakfast at a cafe, where the former asks questions about the procedure and the latter answers concisely. The two girls later board the bus again and travel back to Pennsylvania. However, the ending is left open for the viewer’s interpretation. Will Autumn reach out to Kelly? Will she receive any help and support? Will she be safe from her abuser, whoever he is? The audience has to answer these questions and fill in the remaining gaps by themselves. I hope for a happy ending, but realistically, knowing the truth of the world, no radical change will happen in Autumn’s life. There is no guarantee that the abuse she has experienced won’t repeat again in the future.
However, a silver lining of the movie is that it demonstrates the quiet solidarity between women, hidden between interlocked fingers and knowing glances. During one of the toughest moments of her life, it is Skylar and Kelly who comforts Autumn, remaining by her side unconditionally, without any expectations. Even though society and its arbitrary rules work against us, we at least have our fellow women to stand with us – and that is the ultimate summary of the female experience.