“Eliza Hittman’s films exist in some parallel place. She creates universes that feel familiar but are also totally singular: the time period is indeterminate, the film grain leaves a textured plane one wants to reach out to touch like a thick, inviting sculpture, the characters feel like the person next door but also massive symbols well beyond human form. The film is stylistically otherworldly but also hyperreal as an audience travels with her characters on a low-key hero’s journey through regular life.
“Things happen in Never Rarely Sometimes Always but it just kind of rolls forward, living on its own anxious momentum following the two main characters, Skylar (Talia Ryder) and Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), teens in a washed up coal town in Pennsylvania who travel to NYC for medical attention. When it was over I honestly was like ‘No, no, it can’t be time to leave now, we all just started to get to know each other, I want to know you will be okay,’ it is this feeling that makes the film special. The film asserts a quiet bond between people, reminding that everyone has needs and experiences — however loud or silent. The film reminds that compassion is a truly heroic feat in the face of so many intense unknowns.
“Some dismiss the film as ‘an abortion film,’ something that a recent Academy member criticized the director for in a scathing e-mail about his refusal to watch it for awards consideration, but it is much more than that. Never Rarely deals with the spaces and judgements in society that leave people vulnerable but also asserts the power in agency, and the power in caring, that can change these systems. Whether it is making choices about one’s own body or making a film to amplify the cause, Never Rarely is a stark reminder that humanity is a vastly complex web of chaos and we all should be here to get one another through it with understanding, humility and grace.”
Donna K. works coast-to-coast while rooted in the Midwest. She acted as Media Curator at True/False Film Fest and was Head of Programming at both the Citizen Jane Film Festival and Oxford Film Festival. Her annual “Ten Best Films Directed By Women” can be found online at Filmmaker Magazine.
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