Movie Breakdown: Plan B

Pre-Screening Stance:

I saw Natalie Morales’ directorial debut, Language Lessons, at this year’s SXSW, and I absolutely loved it. So, yep, I’m definitely excited for the follow-up here. By the way, Morales directed Language Lessons before Plan B but the latter is getting a release first, so is it actually her directorial debut? Life’s mysteries, man.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Plan B is a smidge too long, but it’s a good film. It follows Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Moroles), two teens who decide to host a party so that they can get in some quality time with their crushes. Things – of course – don’t go quite as planned for either of them, but it’s doubly so for Sunny, who awakes the next day and realizes that the condom from her unexpected sexual encounter has been swimming around inside of her. The pair of besties then set out to find Sunny a Plan B pill, but that, too, proves to be a whole thing.

For the most part, Plan B is pretty much like Booksmart, Superbad, Blockers and any other modern teen-centric film – there’s a ton of jokes, some raunchiness to it all, and good lessons to be learned. Verma and Moroles turn in spirited performances and are really easy to root for, even if their characters rarely seem to do much of anything that makes sense. I will note though, I think the ridiculousness of their journey is meant to parallel the ludicrous loops that women have to jump through in order to do what they with their bodies, and in that regard, the plot definitely tracks.

I think a good 15-20 minutes could have come off of Plan B, but it’s an otherwise a quality “coming of age” film. Give it some time when it hits Hulu this Friday, May 28.

One Last Thought:

Edi Patterson is a funny lady, and I really enjoyed her little part in this film as a maybe dumb, maybe super sharp convenient store employee.