Review: "Unpregnant"

An energetic BFF road movie with pro-choice and feminist messages, this film relies on some high school stereotypes and gender clichés, mostly about boys, but manages to resist predictability.

Unpregnant lands a lot of laughs in the banter between Veronica and Bailey and their misadventures on the road, and the two lead actresses do a great job playing opposites with a convincingly shared history and a deep mutual affection. Both actresses credibly transition between comedy and drama throughout the film. Unpregnant is no Thelma and Louise, but a key car-over-a-cliff scene references the classic, as does the American Southwest setting, complete with wide-open spaces, long, straight roads, and dusty small towns populated by cowboys, county fairs, and conspiracy theorists.

This film aims for a much more upbeat tone than that classic, though there are some strong political messages here. The clinical, step-by-step description of an abortion procedure at the film's end aims to demystify the process. A pro-choice monologue laments the fact (and the film's premise) that a 17-year-old girl in present-day America should have to travel across several state lines to get an abortion on request without parental consent.

That message, like two intense "pro-life" characters, a Mike and Karen Pence joke, and a coming-out plot twist, could turn some audiences off. It's more likely that the politics, the humor, and the generally youthful mood will all speak directly to this film's target audience.

---

Read the full review at Common Sense Media.