Sunday 16 July 2023

BITE-SIZED: Plan B (Natalie Morales, 2021)

Best friends Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Moroles) are two teens in South Dakota.

They are also in trouble: Sunny has just had sex and needs the Plan B pill.


When they are unable to get the pill from their local pharmacy, the best friends have to go on a race against time to get to the state’s one remaining Planned Parenthood.


Will they get there in time? And will they get Sunny’s mum’s (Jolly Abraham) car back before she notices?



The comic yin to Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods, Natalie Morales’ Plan B is no less terrifying in its implications.


Running just over 100 minutes, Plan B has the pacing of a thriller, as our heroines try to achieve their goal.


Maybe it is due to the current climate, with the end of Roe v Wade, and the swathes of anti-abortion legislation being passed by states in America, I did not find Plan B a laugh riot - but the movie is not interested in gags.


Aside from a bit involving unintended genital mutilation, the humor is character-based.


Verma and Moroles have a believable rapport as best friends, and most of the movie’s impact rests on their shoulders.


And while comic in part, there is a bleak underbelly to the film’s story - Sunny’s fear of her mother feels less imminent than the weight of having to carry through an unwanted pregnancy.


Further tension comes from Lupe’s covert relationship with a rock drummer (Myha’la Herrold), which she has kept secret from her family and her best friend.


While there is an element of farce to the characters’ trip, Plan B is a film about young women wrestling with a world that wants to dictate what they do with their bodies. And the film does not try to offer easy remedies to their problems. 


A small, empathetic teen movie, Plan B is a fine showcase for its stars - and a sad reflection of the world its intended audience are growing up in.


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