UNPREGNANT (2020)
17 year-old Veronica Clarke (Haley Lu Richardson) is a high school girl with big plans for her future…big plans that come to a screeching halt when she finds herself pregnant. Veronica makes a decision, but the only place the Missouri teen can get an abortion without parental consent is Albuquerque, New Mexico. Veronica turns to her one time best friend, nerdy Bailey Butler (Barbie Ferreira) to take her on a road trip to get the procedure without her mother, or her popular new friends finding out. Obviously, the road trip does not go as planned.
Movie is based on the book of the same name by Ted Caplan and Jenni Hendricks. It’s directed very well by Rachel Lee Goldenberg from her script with the book’s authors, along with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and William Parker. It’s a bit daring to make a road trip, drama/comedy based around such a hot topic, but the film doesn’t preach either way and both points of view get made, though the film does lean more towards a woman making her own choices. And that’s what makes this sometimes very poignant and funny flick interesting, is that, in a way, it’s not about Veronica’s abortion, but a young woman coming of age and making her own choices in her own life. Choices she feels are the right choices and right for her, as Veronica rediscovers the friend in Bailey and that her boyfriend Kevin (Alex MacNicoll) may not be the guy for her, despite his wanting to take responsibility for her pregnancy and marry her. The flick has a good cast, with Haley Lu Richardson once again proving she is a star in the making and Barbie Ferreira displaying a dynamic young actress to keep an eye with her eccentric and energetic, nerd Bailey. An enjoyable and sometimes thought provoking comedy/drama. Also stars Breckin Meyer and Sugar Lyn Beard as a well-intended, but overzealous religious couple and Giancarlo Esposito as a very strange limo driver named Bob. Film is a an HBO Max original.
-MonsterZero NJ
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 