A young woman finds her life turned upside-down by an unplanned pregnancy in “Happening.” Her friends are of little help.A topical movie depicting a young woman’s struggle to get an outlawed abortion in ‘60s France and three standout streaming series, including two that prove to be better than their previous movie outings, headline this week’s roundup of new movies and series you should know about.
Beyond that, however, “Happening” succeeds because it’s an exceptionally well-crafted and acted feature. What makes it so is Diwan and co-screenwriter Marcia Romano’s unwavering strategy to chronicle every facet of what it’s like to be a person with an unplanned pregnancy at a time when getting an abortion could land you in jail or kill you.
Vartolomei is amazingly effective as the crumbling Anne. She makes us feel her every hobbling emotion: isolation, desperation, depression. Diwan and Vartolomei don’t soft-pedal any of this: Diwan won’t let the camera shy away at pivotal junctures and Vartolomei crawls into very dark emotional places and spaces. Yet “Happening” isn’t just abject hopelessness and despair.