So this is a movie about abortion, but not in the usual ways. There’s no angsting about making the decision, there’s no teary family drama, there’s no big political argument being advanced explicitly (though obviously it’s impossible to make this movie and not be implicitly making a handful of them). It’s really almost entirely about the trip that the protagonist takes to NYC with her friend to get the abortion that would be illegal in Pennsylvania.

At one level, it’s just this movie about… logistics. So much of the movie is working through the bureaucratic and practical realities of the intersection of the legal and medical systems, that it’s almost banal except for the stakes for the protagonist. Like, there’s a scene where they have to change busses on their way to NYC — it’s just a normal part of the route, but in context, it’s this unexpected extra thing that could go wrong, another possible place to make a mistake on this journey that’s outside of their experience.

This sense of relentless mundanity is enhanced by the way the director keeps the characters at a remove: This isn’t a movie where anyone gives a teary monologue. The characters barely speak; and when they do, they talk around the edges of things and change the subject to avoid uncomfortable topics.

But relentlessly, the movie also shows us, in ways as low-key as a too-friendly customer at the grocery store checkout line, that all these logistics take place in a patriarchal society that is going to just keep putting obstacles in the girls’ path; and as wordless as the girls’ friendship is at times, it’s critical to them getting through it.

Recommended.