'Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always'

“When women travel into the city, they always overpack,” 

Eliza Hittman says this as she answers an audience member’s question “Why do Autumn and Skylar lug a large suitcase around throughout their journey?” 

“It is metaphoric to the burden they carry,” Hittman adds. The burden of being at the end of controversy. The burden of being seen as less than by society and the people around one all because of something the human body itself can’t control. 

Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always is an intense and truly impactful film that tells the story of thousands of women in America alone through two young girls, Autumn and Skylar, on a trip to New York City from Pennsylvania so Autumn could receive the care she had needed urgently. The care that is so demonized in our society that even discussing it is a controversy in itself, and people who have no experience with it feel the necessity to take sides. Say the name aloud and create a hushed atmosphere. An abortion. 

This film is not a piece of propaganda to make everyone who sees it support abortion. It is not a film to create a war over. 

“I don’t think it’s a tool to change people’s minds,” Hittman says. 

And this holds true. 

Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, is a film that tells of a journey, of travel that had taken the most out of the two girls experiencing it, as they weave their way around the world through the eyes of youth. Though most importantly this is a film about Autumn. The girl who travels to New York with her supportive cousin Skylar to overcome an aspect of her life. The girl who has had her own experiences that are not ones to tell at the moment, as all human beings do. And after her journey is done and over with, she does not transform, her problems do not fix themselves and disappear. But as the ending scene shows us, she has found peace in this one moment. 

To elaborate on Hittman’s words, she became herself again.