 Happening is kind of a cross between four months, three weeks, two days, and never really sometimes always with the stylistic intensity of the former but the character focus of the latter. And considering one was among my top films of 2020 and the other was among my top films of ever, it's wild that it stands up to that comparison. Following Anne, a student in 1960s France who realizes she's pregnant and faces the prospect of everything she dreamed for herself, vanishing in a pool of placenta fluid, she looks to terminate. Problem is, abortions back then were legal in the same way many American states are working to make them illegal now. Our teenage protagonist, based on author Annie Erno, has to figure out something that doesn't get her and those around her imprisoned. It's a critical reminder of the very real and very human cost of abortion bans. It doesn't stop the procedure. It just makes desperate women resort to truly harrowing measures and the film doesn't shy away in its depictions. Sitting there as it refused to cut from a close-up of Anne's writhing pain during an attempt to self-induce with a knitting needle was one of the most genuinely upsetting experiences I've ever had in a movie theater. And the idea that someone could reach Happening's credits and think, this is the future I want for my country is genuinely horrifying. Oh, whoops, I just donated $100 to the National Network of Abortion Fund. Five stars.