At the 60th minute of the film, the meaning of the hard-to-remember title "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" was finally revealed. In the consultation room where we never see the full picture, the social worker asks Autumn questions about her health and safety, and expects her to answer on a frequency of "never, rarely, sometimes, always." The social worker said briskly that there was no need to feel pressured to answer the multiple-choice question, but it was a series of questions from "did your sexual partner refuse to use a condom" to "did your sexual partner physically abuse you" that made the story The deliberately hidden sexual partner was brought into the conversation for the first time, and Autumn, who calmly and independently decided to have a secret abortion alone, may also realize at this moment that she should not be alone for the unexpected arrival in her womb. children are responsible.
However, during the three-minute interrogation, Autumn was always alone. The camera is close-up on her tired but trying to keep calm face. In this cramped screen space, the unmelted snow on the streets of her hometown and the neon of New York have faded, and Autumn has no cousin who provides emotional support along the way. , did not even hit back at the gentle and firm-spoken social worker on the opposite side. Yes, it's just Autumn sitting there in her signature yellow sweater, retracing the inescapable pain the next step in the question's lead.
In this shot that excludes all external factors, the screen seems to become a mirror. "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" is Autumn's story, a decision she is solely responsible for, and a journey that belongs to her. However, these scattered "never, rarely, sometimes, always" answers are by no means just Autumn's answers.
Sequins and Nose Pins: A Character Study That Belongs to Her
The plot of "Never" is simple: Autumn, a 17-year-old with an unwanted pregnancy, embarks on a journey to New York for an abortion with her close cousin, Skylar, after discovering that Pennsylvania law requires the knowledge of a parent to have an abortion.
In the context of the passage of anti-abortion laws in many states in the United States, the plot of unintended teenage pregnancy and interstate abortion in "Never" can easily make this film seem like a "viewpoint" movie. However, although "Never" is a story about abortion, it does touch on a series of issues such as women's body control, this film is not intense or bloody, and the description of the characters is more than the expression of the point of view. work.
It has no struggle and collision, no dramatic climax, no true farewell and final reconciliation, no American warmth of "Juno", and no roughness of "Three Weeks and Two Days in April". "Never" is more like an excerpt of several days and nights from the videotapes of the two girls' lives, watching their lives and journeys from a close but restrained perspective, without deliberately creating dog blood or ignoring any details. This kind of observation gives the two girls under close-up a sense of reality that is not like the characters in the movie, and we are also invited to enter their world, experience their unease in their reticence, and a time when faced with high-pressure events. Emotional surge.
In such a character-focused story, the way the protagonist appears is extremely important, and "Never" constructs the world in which Autumn lives and the day-to-day life it experiences in a very clean and efficient way. "Never" opens with a retro-inspired high school talent show, with Autumn singing a sad song to guitar accompaniment as her classmates perform botched Elvis parodies and '50s mashups. Although she wears a comical coat with silver glitter eyeshadow, the thoughts in her eyes and singing have put her in a different time and space than her peers.
And the next few scenes from the restaurant to the home, from the supermarket to the street, the mother who is occupied by the energy of a few little sisters, the stepfather who is not in a good mood, and the lively and capable cousin Skylar, the relationship between the characters around Autumn is quickly completed, and Autumn's sense of alienation and alienation from her environment deepened. Director Eliza Hittman's two previous feature films were set in long, sunny summer days, but "Never" chose to choose the winter of Pennsylvania's unresolved ice, and the entire story was covered with off-white filters and bulky clothes. Autumn with his stomach walked alone.
However, while the process of establishing Autumn's image is precise and efficient, the most important antecedents of her entire character are deliberately and completely hidden, namely how this unwanted pregnancy happened and who the father of the child is. As we enter this story, Autumn has been pregnant for a while, and with her somewhat reticent and self-contained personality, she certainly won't tell us viewers the secrets she most want to keep silent.
This lack of a piece of the puzzle creates some lingering mystery for the audience, but more importantly, the story is no longer about the cause and effect of a girl's abortion, but about the specific reality of Autumn. The average person who exists, experiences every aspect of life after making an abortion decision. This story, therefore, no longer asks the reasons for the action, but only focuses on the action itself.
A quote from Hittman's interview may perfectly explain why she chose to hide these backgrounds: "It's no one's business but hers." This is Autumn's own body, and it's her decision that no one else can participate in. Therefore, after she knew she was pregnant, she pierced her body and put on nose studs in a primitive and violent way. In an act of self-destruction and self-love at the same time, Autumn urgently declares her independence and sole control over her own body.
another gender in the background
From the perspective of traditional drama, "Never" can be said to be a slightly looser version of The Hero's Journey (or should be said to be The Heroine's Journey). The journey from Pennsylvania town to Manhattan is an Odyssey of Autumn and Skylar, and though our heroes sit in greyhounds and eat the cheapest bread, their steadfastness and courage, their unspoken support for each other, are all part of the game. The journey is infused with some moving heroism.
Although not every link in the narrative model is involved, since it is a heroic Odyssey, difficulties and obstacles are inevitable. The story of "Never" eschews more dramatic conflict, and the city of New York seems to take advantage of the situation to become the villain that the two teenage girls must overcome. They buy tickets clumsily, have nowhere to go but take the subway back and forth, the noisy night of the whole city falls on them, and they can't even win a chicken at chess.
Their most obvious burden on this trip to New York was the unnecessary large suitcase they carried with them. Autumn and Skylar had only planned to come to New York for one day, but Skylar was stuffed with a change of clothes and had to slog up and down lugging a bulky suitcase. The director's explanation for this is that she read that many women who come to New York for an abortion will bring a lot of luggage because they always think that they will come and have time to visit; but they are wrong, they are only here to have an abortion. This weight that has to be carried seems to be a joke in New York to the girls in the small town, and it is also a visual metaphor, reflecting the heavy pressure on the calm surface of the two.
The plight of the two protagonists seems trivial compared to the desperate struggles that women in areas where abortion is illegal, after all, Autumn is a woman who still has the right to choose. Despite the ups and downs, Autumn ended up undergoing safe surgery in a legal place. Not only was the staff very professional and gentle and friendly, but Skylar was able to have fun in the restaurant bathroom using the "French prostitute bathing method".
But the above external obstacles are not all the two have suffered, and there is a layer of threats lurking in the background. The classmate who shouted "slut" in the audience, the stepfather who called the family dog "slut", the boss who peeked behind the glass in the supermarket and kissed the hands of two girls when he seized the opportunity, the pervert on the subway, and the boy who struck up a conversation , this danger is so familiar and so pervasive that it may no longer even be counted as a dilemma that needs to be highlighted separately. As a work with two young girls as the protagonists, "Never" very accurately captures the staring, humiliation, harassment and even violations that women, especially underage women, endure anytime and anywhere, and the resulting development from them. Anxiety and alertness that has gone deep into the bone marrow.
And to the "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" query paragraph, this inequality of gender power becomes more explicit, and the male who has been hidden in the background appears in the dialogue, is "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" is a word in measure and judge. In a relationship, every woman is more or less worried about unintended pregnancy, but in most cases, it is men who refuse to use condoms, force sex when women do not want to, and even use physical violence to achieve their goals. , and finally let women take all the risks, bear the momentary despair after discovering an unintended pregnancy and the huge harm to the body and mind of abortion.
We always teach girls self-esteem and self-love, but under the absolute power, oppression and violence of men, such sex education may not achieve the best results. The funny thing is, we seem to be able to teach men, rather offensively, that we can only use contraceptive advertisements for "Bears are annoying": If you don't want to take on the responsibility of being a father, give me good contraception. Autumn's bodily control with the violence of the nose ring seemed so pale here.
While we don't know the cause and effect of Autumn's unplanned pregnancy, her opening song "He's Got Power" might say it all. Whether it is in the name of love or not, in this symbolic sense, he uses absolute power to make "I" do things against his will and say things against his will, so that "I" eventually loses control of his own body.
However, although "Never" involves the above discussion of gender politics, it is still a story that values characters more than conveying information. It fails to cover all aspects of the discussion of women's issues, and it is not a powerful voice or critique. Overemphasizing the feminist label of the film may be slightly off-point. Throughout the story, "Never" does not characterize the behavior of any protagonist, neither accusing the behavior of picking up boys, nor criticizing Skylar for selling sex for money move.
It's more of a serene narrative that captures what the teenage girls are going through these days. These threats as women are not discussed here as grand themes, but are part of the identities of the two protagonists we are about to characterize, the day-to-day they are going on now: the sight of danger hides in every Behind the doors and windows, every time the subway door is opened, he wakes up immediately, treats all unfamiliar men as bad guys, is always awake and always vigilant. For female viewers, the experience is so real that it's a little creepy, and for male viewers, it's perhaps the most empathetic experience they need to try to understand.
taciturn girl
As a work with a theme that seems worth digging into, "Never" has relatively little dialogue. When showing the character status of teenagers, Hittman does not use seemingly clever and fashionable dialogues to show how well he understands teenagers, nor does he make claims through the mouth of the characters, but chooses to use the fewest words and actions that can replace language to describe aptly emotion.
The protagonist Autumn herself is an adolescent girl who doesn't like to talk much, and the subtle changes in her mood depend on actor Sidney Flanigan's use of a word or two such as "F*ck off" and close-up shots. expression. Flanigan, who was acting for the first time, did a pretty good job of Autumn. The gradual progression of emotions throughout the journey, the anxiety and loss of wanting to keep hiding, were all written on her not-sharp but still lonely face.
And the interaction between Autumn and Skylar hardly requires language. The major decisions of the protagonists in "Never" are not made by discussion and negotiation, but by firm actions and accurate expressions. Just like when Skylar decided to go to New York, he stuffed Autumn's schoolbag with cash without saying a word, and Hershey Skylar makes eye concealer for Autumn naturally. The sincere tacit understanding between the two, Skylar's unconditional support without questioning, all flowed slowly in these silent actions.
The most touching physical contact between the two was the sneak hook when Skylar sacrificed her hue for Autumn. Before this, the physical contact in the story of "Never" was made by men. The man who approached the bus on the bus put his hand on Skylar's arm arbitrarily and aggressively, and then touched back and forth in KTV without any concealment. Skylar thighs. Immediately after both encounters, the camera moves to a close-up of Skylar's lost, slightly disgusted face.
But Autumn and Skylar's hooks are different. Between a column, the little fingers of the sisters are lightly hooked. We can't see what Skylar's expression is now when he is kissed by someone he doesn't like. The contact of the memory of the times is a slightly sad but most powerful mutual support.
The friendship between Autumn and Skylar is one of the few lights in this not-so-bright story. My favorite interaction between the two is Autumn and Skylar after surgery, eating bread at the Chinatown Bakery, laughing and discussing the chubby bread-like worms. This dialogue is an improvisation of the two actors, and it is also the most authentic dialogue between two young people who are really at that age. Such dialogue, and the reticence that fits the characteristics of teenagers on other occasions, further makes "Never" more of a life story of ordinary people.
Fortunately, this story has a hopeful and bright ending. The girls who had solved everything got on the bus home. In the soft light, the tired Autumn finally closed her eyes safely. Our observation of Autumn ends here, and in the future, she may or may not tell the secret of her unplanned pregnancy. In any case, we will never know, after all, this is her body and her story.
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