Happening grabs you from the first minute and never lets go, taking you on a dark and real journey alongside a young woman facing an unwanted pregnancy in the 1960s.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 18, 2024

Happening is a bravura piece of filmmaking. It is executed cleanly, precisely, without shying away from anything but without dwelling on it either.

| Sep 16, 2023

Diwan’s adaptation is unique for its unflinching resolve to show the callousness of men (the intransigent doctors and exploitative men), the inadequacies of social structures, and the need for solidarity amongst women.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 18, 2023

It isn't the best film depicting the subject; however, it is an essential watch, now more than ever before.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 21, 2023

[Never] gives into the powerful didactic or melodramatic forces … with director Audrey Diwan retaining a measured, unflinching focus. That carries over into [Anamaria] Vartolomei's understated performance.

| Feb 17, 2023

Happening is a movie that dispenses with the pleasantries of deep side characters or even growth for its lead role. It’s a vivid, unsettling depiction of abortion in a place and time, sordidly familiar right now...

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jan 4, 2023

Artful and socially resonant, Happening is one of the most poignant and moving films of the year.

| Dec 27, 2022

A film of international importance, told with empathy, sincerity and anger.

| Dec 13, 2022

Vartolmei delivers a remarkable performance, underplaying Anne’s emotional responses in a way that makes them register all the more strongly on the viewer.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 8, 2022

Happening unsubtly and successfully acts as a reminder of the importance of abortion rights at a moment when reactionary creeps the world over are pushing back.

| Nov 22, 2022

Happening plays at a surprisingly quick pace, wrapping us up in the suffocating, terrifying totality of the situation. It's only Diwan’s second film, but it feels like veteran work -- so engrossing, so carnal, so full of empathy that it hurts to look at.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2022

The most-need-to-be-seen feature of the year . . . . In this grippingly honest, no-holds-barred film, a 23-year-old lit student seeks an abortion in 1963 France, an act for which she, her doctor, and anyone else who aids her can be sent to prison.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 14, 2022

When Diwan has to choose between reckoning the protagonist or impacting the audience, she chooses the latter. And for a few minutes, everything falls apart... almost impeccable otherwise. Almost. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2022

It’s brutal in spots, but especially vital to watch right now.

| Aug 5, 2022

the film, calibrated in passing weeks, closely tracks Anne’s efforts – greatly circumscribed and increasingly desperate – to choose her own future.

| Aug 2, 2022

No, it's not an upbeat subject. But perhaps now, with Roe overturned and people experiencing the consequences of abortion bans, it's time to watch this movie.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 28, 2022

Diwan relies on a raw and daring mise-en-scène, and avoids becoming a pamphlet. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 26, 2022

Happening is an honest, harrowing, frighteningly timely, moving, and powerful experience.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jul 25, 2022

Anamaria Vartolomei’s lead performance is necessarily and intensely physical—and subject to some harrowing bodily choreography in the homestretch—but what binds us to her is a sense of the perceptive, gifted writer trapped behind weary, terrified eyes.

| Jul 9, 2022

Happening presenta con firmeza cómo la experiencia traumática no radica en el acto del aborto en sí, sino en el terror que genera un embarazo forzado por falta de apoyo médico adecuado.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 4, 2022