Plan B

As "Plan B" (2021 release; 107 min) opens, we get to know BFFs Sunny and Lupe, both HS juniors or seniors somewhere in South Dakota. Sunny has a crush on Hunter. Lupe talks Sunny into throwing a party at her house as her mom is out of town at a conference. At the party, things quickly go out of control... At this point we are 10 min into the film.

Couple of comments: this is the directing debut of Natalie Morales (best known for roles in various TV series). And what a debut it is! First and foremost, this is both a comedy and a road trip movie, and it is often hilarious and rip-roaring. Much of the credit for that must go to the two lead performers, Kuhoo Verma (as Sunny) and Victoria Moroles (as Lupe). Their on-screen chemistry is undeniable, and it's just a joy to see them. That said, the movie is also poignant and sad, as the underlying reminder is how women's health care is already hard to come by (if at all) in large stretches of this country. And that is before a possible Supreme Court decision later this year whether to hollow out or simply overturn Roe v Wade altogether. Yea, this is what this country has come to: first an attempted coup d'etat by the worst president this country has ever seen, simply because he didn't like the results of the presidential election; now a potential turnover of what has been the well-established law of the land for half a century, all to appease a fanatic religious minority in this country. What's next? New voter restrictions? Oh, wait...

"Plan B" was released on Hulu in May, 2021. I only recently became aware of this film, when I saw it mentioned in NPR's "best movies of 2021" list. So glad I found out about it. If you are in the mood for a funny and outrageous comedy that has an undeniable political undertone, I'd readily suggest you check this out on Hulu or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Super funny with strong POC lady leads. Doesn't shy away from raunchy humor, which was refreshing from a female led comedy. It also does a great job of incorporating current events and legislation into the story. Definitely recommend.

The "plan B," so to speak, to this teenage (or twenty-somethings playing teenagers, rather) buddy-party flick would be a road trip movie, including a bit more partying. We've seen it before: "Superbad" (2007) and "Booksmart" (2019) meets, say, a less depressing "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" (2020), or even the stoners-instead-of-teenagers "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" (2004), except instead of the buddies hitting the road in search of a laxative in the shape of tiny fast-food burgers, they're after the morning-after pill. The joke being, I guess, that the obvious answer of a pharmacy was staring them in the face all along. Kids, huh, making the simplest tasks into life-affirming adventures. To their credit, these ones do try a pharmacy first, but are unwilling to discuss sex with their parents so as to get an obstinate clerk--I mean pharmacist--to fork over the drug. Or, maybe try another pharmacy.... But, I suppose this is a commentary on particularly American sexual hangups and how contraception gets tied up in the country with abortion, Planned Parenthood and evangelical-political moralizing.

Graciously, "Plan B" isn't as obtuse as it could've been in regards to its obvious socio-political commentary, although there are a few politically-correct or straw-man racial jokes that land with a thud. A fellow student, for instance, who remarks with surprise that one of the girls' homes doesn't smell like curry. Later, there's the tired trope of rapacious men cornering them, and they also employ food-based racism, as well as misogyny. During one of the parties, too, one of the girls quips about how something must be how white privilege feels. Fortunately, most of the comedy is better than that. There's even some relatively-graphic humor involving what I assume was a prosthetic penis. Good, because these type of movies are insufferable if they're rated anything less than the MPAA's R, or the TV-slash-streaming-on-Hulu equivalent of TV-MA.

Compared to that other girl-buddy flick "Booksmart," "Plan B" isn't quite as well filmed. None of the drug-induced fantasy sequences. The musical cues and underwater cinematography in the party scenes regarding the lesbian friend in that one is more impressive filmmaking than anything seen here. A similar plotline is included here, too, but it doesn't quite fit as well into the general theme of sexual repression as I assume it was intended to. It's derivative otherwise, as well. On the other hand, at least the kids in this one don't appear to be condescending rich brats as in "Booksmart." So, there's that, and it's passably amusing.

Also, there's a good joke from Andy the drug dealer regarding his also supposedly being 17, but his skin being affected by his lack of water. Of course, the actor being really closer to 30 than 17.

Not as raunchy as Superbad, witty as Booksmart or silly as Harold and Kumar, but Plan B is a more understated more sweet than bitter movie about 2 high school friends, Sunny and Lupe, who go on an overnight road trip to find the Plan B pill in a neighboring town. The humor is drawn from the women trying to navigate through, the silliness of high school life, the everyday of South Dakota and being women of color - the movie isn't about race at all but it is an important fabric of their background and journey. Enjoy the movie like a walk to get some ice creme with your best friend. You probably won't post about it on social media but still a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

It wasn't as funny for a comedy as I expected, but it was well directed, and casting and performances were decent, and the two leads had realistic chemistry. The writing had some plot and technical issues, and the 107 runtime needed to be trimmed down to at most 90 mins. Otherwise a decent one-time watch.