Quiet, close-up and unhurried, Never Rarely Sometimes Always follows two teenage girls from rural Pennsylvania to the streets of New York. Eliza Hittman directs this 2020 drama, which runs 101 minutes.
What is Never Rarely Sometimes Always about?
A teenager in rural Pennsylvania discovers she is pregnant and did not plan to be. The help she is looking for is not available where she lives, so she packs a bag and boards a bus to New York City, and her closest friend, a girl her own age, comes along. The trip is short on money, sleep and certainty. Much of the story unfolds in waiting rooms, stations and unfamiliar streets, as the two navigate appointments and paperwork in a city neither of them knows. Very little is spoken aloud between them; the film trusts glances and small practical gestures to show how much one is carrying and how firmly the other stands beside her.
About the cast
Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder head the cast and carry nearly every scene between them. Théodore Pellerin, Sharon Van Etten and Ryan Eggold appear in supporting parts, with Drew Seltzer and Kim Rios Lin also credited. Eliza Hittman directs with a restrained hand that keeps attention on faces and on silences.
Context & significance
The film is a co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States and is classified simply as drama, with no secondary genre attached. That plain label fits. There are no chases, no courtroom speeches and no heightened set pieces; the tension comes from ordinary obstacles such as distance, cost, time and the awkwardness of asking strangers for help. Its subject is a medical decision faced by a minor, and the storytelling stays with her point of view throughout, observing rather than arguing. Critics received the film warmly, and it is frequently cited among the notable American independent dramas of its year. Because of its theme and its measured pace, it is better suited to adult and older-teen viewers than to a family evening.
Watching Never Rarely Sometimes Always on Ktime
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is on K-Time with a Persian dub and with Persian subtitles, so you can choose whichever suits you. Anyone can read this page; watching the film requires signing in to a K-Time account. Menus and search are in Farsi, in keeping with a service made for Persian speakers around the world.