Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Raunchy teen road trip has language, sex, drinking, drugs.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Plan B
What's the Story?
Lupe (Victoria Moroles) and Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) are best friends and high school classmates in small-town South Dakota in PLAN B. When Sunny has an awkward first sexual encounter then later finds the condom she'd used didn't work properly, she turns to Lupe for help. The two try to get a Plan B pill, but the local pharmacist refuses to sell it to them, so they take off for the closest Planned Parenthood, three hours away by car. En route, they'll have a series of adventures and encounters that will test their friendship in a variety of ways.
Is It Any Good?
This edgy comedy has a lot of teen appeal, but also a lot of mature content. The teen girl buddy movie is having a moment -- from Booksmart to Never Rarely Sometimes Always to Unpregnant, the latter two with premises not dissimilar to this film's. What Plan B brings to the genre is more diversity and a gleeful urge to push the boundaries. Its two charismatic leads (played by newcomers Victoria Moroles and Kuhoo Verma) face a variety of stereotypes and ethnically-insensitive comments. Most of these are played for laughs, like the idea of an "Indian mafia" that young Indian Americans can't escape, or a character's secret penchant for Christian rap. At one point, one of the stars deadpans, "Is this what White privilege feels like?" There are also subplots about a lesbian character fearing the repercussions of coming out, and the pressures teens feel to live up to their parents' and peers' expectations.
Unfortunately, the characters don't reveal these inner feelings and motivations until more than an hour into the movie. For its first half, Plan B feels more like a series of ideas and situations strung together. Some of these are very funny, but others are decidedly less so. Rachel Dratch has a cameo as a clueless sex ed teacher promoting female abstinence, and an overachieving teen mind-melds hilariously with a drug dealer when they're both high. Sequences like one involving grown men frightening two teen girls with racist sexual taunts, young adults drugged out of their minds at a house party, or a playground drug dealer dropping his pants for oral sex all feel a bit aggressive for a high school movie.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the South Dakota law that allows a pharmacist to refuse to sell birth control if it goes against his or her beliefs, and which forces Sunny and Lupe to have to drive hours to get a pill. Where else do such laws exist? What's your opinion about them?
What do Lupe and Sunny learn about each other on their road trip? Does the trip weaken or strengthen their relationship? How so?
How do the teenagers' parents react when they return? Were you surprised by their behavior? Why or why not?
Lupe and Sunny are each keeping a secret from the other. Why? Did you understand their hesitations to share?
How were drug use and drinking presented here? Were there consequences for this behavior? Why do consequences matter?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : May 28, 2021
- Cast : Victoria Moroles , Kuhoo Verma , Edi Patterson
- Director : Natalie Morales
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Queer Movie Director(s) , Latino Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Hulu
- Genre : Comedy
- Topics : Friendship , School ( High School )
- Run time : 107 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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