Felicia Graham/Netflix
There’s something decidedly uncomfortable about the premise of Look Both Ways, Netflix’s latest hit original film. (Currently, it’s the streamer’s number one movie in the U.S.) The night of her college graduation, Natalie (Lili Reinhart) takes a pregnancy test. Weeks before, she hooked up with her best guy friend; now, she’s worried she might be having his baby.
In comes the movie’s primary gimmick: The storyline splits in two, with one following Natalie after her test is positive, the other after it’s negative. As opposed to committing to just one of these potential pathways, Look Both Ways has some fun with exploring both outcomes. Yet there’s something off about watching Natalie blossom into her baby-less, post-grad life in one timeline—while also seeing her move back home and be unemployed, single, and depressed in the other.
Look Both Ways explicitly refers to itself as “pro-[her] choice,” then showcases how miserable that choice can be. Which is fine! Plenty of women wind up pregnant and don’t choose to have an abortion. Lord knows that right now, plenty of women don’t even have the option to do so. But despite emphatically deciding to carry her baby to term, Natalie saddles up for the ride of motherhood with little drive, motivation, or enthusiasm.