Unpregnant

Finally, we have a movie about teenage abortion that isn’t a total downer!

Writer/director Rachel Goldenberg’s rowdy road trip comedy, Unpregnant, concisely captures the wild ride of emotions — literally and metaphorically — surrounding one of the most serious issues facing teenage girls. Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen) stars as Veronica, a 17-year-old high schooler dealing with the harsh reality of an unplanned pregnancy with an Ivy league future at stake. Though she’s clearly the type of girl to have plans on top of plans, this shocking development isn’t something she can bullet-journal her way out of.

Confronted with the daunting task of alarming her conservative, deeply religious parents in order to adhere to a Missouri law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for an abortion, Veronica opts for another route — a carefully outlined, thousand-mile road trip to the next closest clinic, in Albuquerque, N.M. The catch is she doesn’t have a car and can’t risk blowing her “perfectionist” image with her friends, so she reluctantly seeks the help of her dark and twisty ex-best friend, Bailey (Barbie Ferreira, HBO’s “Euphoria”). Banking on the fact that Bailey is considered a total social outcast, Veronica figures that her secret mission is safe from the high school rumor mill, and the two set out on the road trip of a lifetime.

Adapted from Jenni Hendriks’ and Ted Kaplan’s novel of the same name, Unpregnant quickly transforms into a provocative buddy comedy with a tried and true teenage dynamic: one rigid, Type A friend foiled by the lax, Type B counterpart. With Veronica’s perfectly perky, “scrunchie and sneakers” vibe next to Bailey’s green-haired and grungy, disheveled aesthetic, the two confront their differences head-on with an exchange of caustic callouts and revisit their storied past with fun traditions like doing a little dance in the car whenever they cross a state line. In the wild and weird company of Bailey, Veronica realizes that she’s been straddling two worlds — one in which she has a perfectly curated Instagram grid, an overly doting boyfriend and Ivy League greatness on the horizon, and another where her flawed and unpredictable Klingon-speaking freak flag can fly.

As the unlikely pair’s rebellious ride advances — including gas station shopping sprees, specialty Slurpee-making, one extremely cathartic Kelly Clarkson singalong, a brief escape from law enforcement, an accidental “Jesus freak” kidnapping and a Thelma and Louise-style car-driven-off-a-cliff moment — so, too, does their bond. These ludicrous antics, steeped in a rebudding friendship and coupled with the electric chemistry between the two leads, effortlessly move the plotline along while keeping audiences equally engaged and entertained.

Goldenberg’s filmmaking strikes the right balance between comedic chaos and timely drama, as she carefully doles out scenes of absolute absurdity alongside moments of necessary introspection. Perhaps the most direct demonstration of this is a scene in which Veronica is at her wit’s end with the road trip’s disarray and erupts into a monologue on an empty train track. She’s bursting not only from the frustration of her haphazard journey but also from the intense pressure of society overall. As she screams into the unforgiving desert about the unfair laws forcing her to drive 996 miles just to obtain an abortion, she effortlessly underscores the irony behind these hypocritical laws. With an affecting emotional display certifying Richardson’s rising star power, Veronica angrily laments the fact that she’s able to have a child without parental consent but is unable to end a pregnancy without it. She feels trapped in her dilemma and in her own body, and shines a light on the obstacles that she and so many others like her must face.

Utilizing several moments of candor and catharsis, Unpregnant proves that abortion and all the taboo whispers attached to the word don’t have to exist in the fearful, secretive spaces we’re used to seeing them. Instead, it smartly brings a stereotypically “scary” subject into the light while being careful not to make light of the situation itself. The film portrays the procedure itself in a way that feels warm and understanding, not dark and despairing — a laudable filmmaking choice that does much to soften the stigma surrounding this divisive issue.

Even with abortion positioned as the end goal, the film’s primary focus is not so much on Veronica’s predicament, but rather the necessary relationships she forges to overcome it. Goldenberg puts her characters’ interpersonal relationships at the forefront — specifically, the ride-or-die friendship of Veronica and Bailey in relation to the vapid ties between Veronica and her so-called “friends” — and argues that it’s these deep friendships that matter most in times of crisis. Without her willingness to give up control and trust Bailey (and, in essence, herself), Veronica wouldn’t be able to fully arrive at her destination, in any sense of the word. Because of these hilarious and heartbreaking growing pains, the story’s payoff feels earned and enjoyable.

Historically, portrayals of teenage female friendship have been lacking depth on screen, but what Unpregnant and other more recent high school depictions like Booksmart and Lady Bird have done so well is provide a realistic and altogether refreshing portrait of the complexity of such friendships. Instead of a surface dynamic that wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test, the friendships in these films have a rich history, and, as such, feel complicated, interesting and fully relatable. There’s a sense of care and vulnerability given to them without them verging into saccharine territory — a distinction that’s not only typical of teenage life but extremely important for younger female audiences to see.

These girls are shown with all facets of their personalities exposed — the angry, aggressive parts as well as the insecure, vulnerable aspects — in an effort to depict more well-rounded, complicated portrayals of femininity, youth and friendship. It’s a refreshing trend that I hope sticks around, as so many young girls have grown up watching the docile, largely surface female characters get rewarded for being little else than painfully polite or vaguely mysterious. Female audiences specifically are yearning for more dynamic depictions of themselves on screen, and Unpregnant flawlessly fits the bill. It’s funny, messy and intense, without being too farcical or melodramatic to enjoy.

Though the narrative feels a bit formulaic at times — with two vastly different characters coming together to handle high jinks and emerge from the experience forever changed — it never wanders too far off course to read as uninspired. Though it doesn’t fully contain big comic swings like Booksmart or the prickly wit of Juno, Unpregnant forges its own identity that feels distinctly heartfelt, charming and truly memorable. With an unapologetically fun plot, thoughtful filmmaking and two breakout stars in the driver’s seat, Unpregnant brings a sense of humor and normalcy to a subject that is so often shrouded in shame, making it definitely worth the watch.

Available to stream starting Sept. 10 via HBO Max