There is no keener view into family and friendship than a road trip movie. The Blues Brothers were on a mission from god, Thelma and Louise were running from the law, and the Griswold family just wanted to meet Marty Moose—but whatever the quest, there’s a unique bond that comes from spending many days together on the open road. The South Dakota girls in Plan B have modern aspirations, but the friendship and zany hijinks within are familiar and heartwarming.
Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) is a smart and rule-abiding teen whose crush on Hunter (Michael Provost) remains a closely guarded secret. Sunny’s mother is a traditional, strict Indian mom, while Sunny is a maturing American teenager who wants to fit in and seem cool to the popular kids who don’t give her the time of day. That is, until her mom leaves for a conference one weekend, and Sunny and her best friend, Lupe (Victoria Moroles), decide to host a house party.
The party is complete with red Solo cups, questionable alcohol combinations, and even more questionable decisions. Sunny ends up having sex for the first time with Hunter on the bathroom sink, and as a result of their school’s abstinence-only sex ed, the condom malfunctions. In an abundance of caution, Sunny decides to seek out the morning after pill, and thus begins a wild goose chase that takes Sunny and Lupe farther and farther from their hometown.
Plan B never gets too high on a political soapbox, but it doesn’t shy away from criticism of the social structure that led to the need for a road trip in the first place. The very nature of Sunny’s predicament screams of the inherent issues with certain societal systems. She is a good kid doing what plenty of kids her age do, and yet she meets one roadblock after another (some metaphorical, some literal) as she tries to prevent one bad decision from derailing her meticulously planned life.
The characters that the girls encounter on their journey live up to the tradition of road trip movies. They do drugs and go to a stranger’s party. They fend off racist and misogynist catcallers. They watch a local band play at a bowling alley. But amidst all of this, they never lose sight of their goal to thwart Sunny’s possible pregnancy.
Plan B is funny and charming thanks to its excellent script and its spot-on casting. Verma and Moroles play their characters with such affection and respect that it’s impossible to dislike either of them. They are flawed and idiosyncratic, but never in a way that feels inauthentic, and the film gives the audience enough time to get to know them on many levels.
Like many comedies, Plan B has recurring jokes scattered throughout. Perhaps the best of these is the thread in which Lupe does not get pop culture references, particularly ones from the 1990s. These quick hits of humor could have easily been tossed aside in the editing room, but turn out to be smiley treats wrapped into the film.
Director Natalie Morales shapes Plan B’s subtle politics into a badge of pride in a film that is funny, smart, and willing to get comfortably uncomfortable with its complicated subjects.