Sometimes you watch something and throughout you just think that this is the perfect movie for you. Your mood is in the exact right spot for it and you find yourself enjoying it more than you previously thought possible. It’s the perfect movie at the perfect time, nothing else matters really. That is exactly what Natalie Morales’ Plan B was for me, the perfect film at the exact right time. The film might not be perfect in every sense of the word but, to me, that was as close as it came to this year. A film that just knew exactly what it was and never let its foot off the gas pedal.

Straight-laced high school student Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and her slacker best friend Lupe (Victoria Moroles) have 24 hours to hunt down a Plan B pill in America’s heartland after a regrettable first sexual encounter.

It’s a simple premise, one that has been done before, a road trip film in a way, and yet, Plan B feels fresh. There’s this trend right now of comedies staring and made by women and Plan B fits in that category perfectly. A film that just feels fresh even if it’s a premise we have heard of before. It’s proof that sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you can just play to your strength and Natalie Morales does that perfectly with this one. The jokes hit, the characters are some of my favourites of the year and the film is capable of holding its own in this comedy renaissance that we are seeing.

The chemistry between Kuhoo Verma and Victoria Moroles is the anchor of the film and it bleeds off the screen. The two of them create some of the film’s best moments. There are moments where I forgot that they were acting because I believed these two truly were best friends, the friendship between Lupe and Sunny is everything to the film. But they also have chemistry with pretty much everyone in the cast. This is a film that is perfectly cast, even characters that are on screen just for a few scenes just feel so real. And that’s the thing about Plan B is that every character just made me laugh, even those that I didn’t want to, I just couldn’t help it. The writing and the jokes were so solid that everything just landed perfectly.

Natalie Morales directed two films that are coming out this year. The first one being Language Lessons, a film that I had the chance to watch when it played at SXSW and even reviewed. Plan B could not be more different, not only in style but also in what the film is about. Similar themes can be found in both, mostly about friendship and love, but they are also two vastly different films. Morales, in the span of a year, directs two films that could not be more different even if you tried. The stylistic approach of both are complete opposites and yet, both prove that Morales is one of those directors that will be able to tackle different styles with each of her projects.

What I love is when a film takes me on a journey, makes me forget for an hour or two about everything else. That is what Plan B did, for the entirety of its runtime, nothing else mattered. I was in it, I cheered for Sunny and Lupe, wanting them to succeed at every turn. Plan B won’t be for everyone, some will simply look at it and not be the audience for it. And that is totally okay. But, Plan B hit all the right notes in my opinion. A film that I just watched and couldn’t stop it, even craving now to rewatch it. The comedy in the film is the type that I love, the characters that I just wanted more of, but most importantly a story that I found so entertaining.

(I also can’t wait to do a double feature of that and Booksmart.)