Review | ‘Unpregnant’ makes the political feel personal
“Unpregnant,” starring Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira, was released Sept. 10 on HBO Max. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan. Graphic by HARRY LADA Art Director
On the surface, “Unpregnant” is a classic road trip movie: two friends with a specific goal driving across the country. While aspects of the film are certainly formulaic, the movie ultimately emphasizes riveting emotional moments and the importance of women’s reproductive rights.
The film’s stars Haley Lu Richardson (“The Edge of Seventeen”) as protagonist Veronica, and Barbie Ferreira (“Euphoria”) plays Veronica’s ex-best friend, Bailey. Richardson and Ferreira deliver standout performances as their characters reconnect over the course of the road trip.
Set in modern-day Missouri, the film starts with Veronica getting a positive result on a pregnancy test. After researching abortions, she discovers that she cannot get the procedure in her state as a 17-year-old without her parents’ consent. The closest facility she can go to receive the treatment is roughly 1,000 miles away in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The icing on the cake? Veronica doesn’t own a car, so she enlists the help of Bailey, the only person she knows who can drive.
“Unpregnant” has an underlying message about a very serious issue, but this movie has a major weakness: how ordinary most of it is. There’s a plethora of cliches, and more than one moment where the viewer can easily predict what the characters will say next.
Cliches are offensive to us because they feel fake. When we are watching a movie and a predictable moment happens, the audience loses interest because it’s something they’ve seen on-screen a million times before. “Unpregnant” would be so much more interesting if it truly leaned into its genuine, specific and weird moments – like when the girls reminisce about their secret handshake from childhood or about their very precise 7-Eleven slushie orders.
I lost interest many times over the course of the film. But there were a few moments that truly drew me back in.
The first occurs when Veronica first tells her boyfriend she’s pregnant and he admits he knew his condom broke about a month ago; he instead looked it up and said it’s “really hard” to get pregnant. Later, Veronica breaks down, screaming in frustration at the whole situation and agonizing over how she should be able to get the healthcare she needs in her home state. We hear often about the difficulties women face with regards to reproductive rights, but there is something different about seeing it affect a young, fragile person right in front of you – someone you have grown to care about over 90 minutes.
Despite the film’s flaws, it’s valuable to have a standard coming-of-age movie that sneaks in mature discussion of a salient issue. This film succeeds in making the political feel personal, while still presenting itself as an ordinary narrative that doesn’t require too much thinking. Some viewers like to watch movies simply to disconnect from reality, and not everyone is a tired, cynical film student who is sick of seeing the same things over and over. Perhaps there is value in that.
