Two teenagers embark on a madcap road trip to Planned Parenthood in this comedy from Natalie Morales.
In the endearing comedy “Plan B,” Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Moroles) are teenage best friends, bonded by hormonal longings and their will to sneak around their strict but loving parents.
Together, the pair throw a party when Sunny’s mom is out of town, and impulsively, Sunny has sex for the first time. When she wakes up, she realizes that she slept with a condom inside her body, risking an unplanned pregnancy. Emergency contraception is needed, and Lupe is right alongside her friend as she runs to retrieve it.
The only problem is that Sunny and Lupe live in South Dakota, a state that allows pharmacists to deny medication based on objections to reproductive rights. Sunny and Lupe are refused morning after pills at their local pharmacy, so they take to the road in search of the nearest Planned Parenthood, making room on their route for rendezvous with playground drug dealers and concerts headlined by crushes.
This buddy comedy (streaming on Hulu) was directed by the actress Natalie Morales, and her filmmaking demonstrates the same easy confidence she has shown as a performer in movies like “Battle of the Sexes” and TV series like “Dead To Me.” The pace isn’t rushed, the punch lines are casually underplayed and the performances are relaxed and charismatic. The emphasis in “Plan B” stays on its characters and their relationships with each other, and this grounded sense of care lends a sense of assurance to more risqué sequences — including an extended scene of full frontal male nudity.
The movie doesn’t make a joke of Sunny and Lupe’s concerns about pregnancy, dating and parental expectations, and in turn, it’s a delight to laugh through their goofier exploits.
Plan B
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
