Here, There and Everywhere

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (A-minus) - Eliza Hittman gets back on her game with this powerful rumination on the travails of a teenage girl seeking out an abortion. The less said, the better, here. 

Hittman, who exploded with 2013's "It Felt Like Love" and stumbled with "Beach Rats," returns to the female perspective of the former and bonds intimately with her new protagonist, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), stalking her documentary-style through the trek from suburban Philadelphia to the mean streets of New York City. What Autumn thought would be a simple procedure turns into a bureaucratic odyssey. 

Autumn's journey also is an opportunity to escape from the horrid boys at school and her creepy (step?)dad. Tagging along for support is her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder), whose more conventional pretty face is an asset in faking their way through the Big Apple and taking an advantage of a gropey boy when necessary. Pitfalls abound, and the girls don't always make the best choices.

Hittman slowly peels away the trauma -- great and small -- that Autumn has endured and which led her to this miserable pursuit. Older women pop up to either guide her or exploit her, but you always sense that Autumn has the inner strength to handle any peril that comes her way. Flanigan carries this shoulder-weight like a pro, until you want to either cheer Autumn or hug her. 

VIVARIUM (C+) - If you are going to make a horror film about the pointlessness of life, you still need to have a point. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots display little chemistry as a couple trapped in a suburban-subdivision from hell, where every home looks alike and there's no escape from the labyrinth that they call home. Oh, the soul-crushing conformity of the suburbs, amirite?

The couple, Tom and Gemma, are given a baby to raise, and he matures faster than a puppy, growing to a school-aged lad, and he is a horrid being, screeching whenever he wants to be fed and playing video "games" on the telly. Tom soon resents eating the same eggs for breakfast every day and becomes obsessed with digging in the yard, searching for an escape or a clue to their existence. Tedium ensues for the couple and for the viewer.

To its credit, this sci-fi nightmare from sophomore director Lorcan Finnegan starts out dark and stays dark. It is a relentless slog. The outlook for this couple, punished for pursuing the ideal of domestic bliss, is bleak from beginning to end. When the kid grows up, he is no more pleasant, and there you go, parents -- be careful what you wish for.