Plan B: A Fun Road Trip Comedy By Director Natalie Morales

Quick Thoughts – Plan B is a fun road trip film that features standout performances from Kuhoo Verma (The Big Sick) and Victoria Morales (Teen Wolf). It will be fun to see what director Natalie Morales does next. 

Directed by Natalie Morales (so good in Dead to Me, Language Lessons, and The Santa Clarita Diet), Plan B is a refreshing film full of humor, likable performances and chase scenes that take place in mud. The script by Prathiksha Srinivasan and Joshua Levy blends heart and raunch well, and their script moves the film along at a breakneck speed that covers a lot of ground, and somehow allows the characters to have moments to breathe and converse. Also, the Syracuse (standing in for South Dakota) filming locations add a nice rural touch to the film, and give the same a unique look that stands apart from films like Booksmart, Superbad and Blockers.

Plan B focuses on best friends Sunny (Verma) and Lupe (Morales), two believably awkward, and very funny (when nobody is around) high schoolers who both have overbearing parents. When Sunny’s mom leaves town for a convention, Sunny throws a party so she can hang out with Hunter (Michael Provost), a cool kid who charmingly wears cardigans while playing sports. What’s nice is that the party isn’t some kind of Can’t Hardly Wait or Project X blowout. Instead, the kids are well behaved, and despite some wildly strong alcohol and cheeky sharpie work, it might be one of the most low key high school parties ever put on screen (which is very refreshing). During the party, Sunny ends up having sex with Kyle (Mason Cook), a self-described “Chris Pratt” type of nice guy. Problems arise the following morning when Sunny learns the condom fell off, and this forces an epic journey through conversative South Dakota to find the Plan B pill. (Aka the morning after pill). What follows involves playground drug deals, a concert at a bowling alley, and a gas station attendant who swings a mean baseball bat. 

The film is loaded with heart and humor, and you genuinely like Sunny and Lupe. They are three-dimensional characters who act like teenagers, as their actions feel real because they believably have no clue what they are doing. Victoria Morales and Kuhoo Verma have excellent chemistry, and if the movie was just them singing the same song over and over in a car, you’d be cool with it. 

Final Thoughts: Plan B is a lot of fun, and feels like Booksmart met Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and spawned a charming film with something to say.