Plan B is a buddy comedy about the dangers of restricted access to abortion

The 2021 film directed by Natalie Morales Plan B is a Rare Thing: a warm-hearted, funny road-trip buddy comedy about two teenage girls who would do absolutely anything for each other, while also explicitly addressing the damage done when access to abortion and other reproductive technologies is denied possibilities are restricted.

One of the girls, Sunny (Kuhoo Verma), is a shy nerd, while the other, Lupe (Victoria Moroles), is more like the “rebel goth”. Sunny has a crush on a boy at school and Lupe convinces her to throw a party at her house to win him over. When the boy goes with one of the most popular girls in school instead, Sunny has drunk sex with her very religious, very naive boyfriend Kyle, who afterwards is almost as panicked about the situation as Sunny is.

When this drunken encounter turns into a pregnancy angst, Sunny and Lupe go to a pharmacy for a Plan B pill, but are turned away because there is no parent present. Understandably nervous about driving to her parents’ house in this situation, Sunny decides to take her mother’s car and drive with Magnifying Glass to the nearest Planned Parenthood – hours away in Rapid City.

Photo: Brett Roedel/Hulu

From there, the film morphs into the kind of light-hearted buddy comedy you’d expect from the road trip genre, full of rowdy gags and ridiculous situations. Moroles and Verma are perfect in the two lead roles as friends who would literally die for each other and are over their heads too, and their chemistry jumps off screen. The supporting cast is full of vocal supporting cast including Rachel Dratch (SNL), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gems) and Moses storm (player).

As Polygon’s Maddy Myers put it in our list of 10 great LGBTQ comedies to watch at home:

There’s also a lot of gross humor in this film (there’s a penis piercing on screen, for example), but since the premise is about human bodies and all of their unexpected and uncomfortable abilities, it works.

Despite all the gags and light-hearted fun, you never forget the drama in it Plan B it all stems from the abject lack of access to abortion for many people in this country. These facts, which are true for so many people, all directly caused the situation: 1) Sunny was refused the pill by a pharmacist, 2) there are no places near Sunny and Lupe that could help, and 3) this huge stigma nearby This problem made Sunny afraid to go to her parents for help. Plan B works because it’s able to organize a fun genre romp around a narrative structure that directly reflects the consequences of how we deal with reproductive rights in this country. It’s a delicate balance, but one that works.

Plan B can be viewed on Hulu.