Mitchell Beaupre
Natalie Morales has been known for some time now thanks to their appearances on film and television ranging from Stuber to Parks and Recreation and so much more. She’s also branched out into directing, helming shorts as well as episodes of the HBO anthology series Room 104.
2021 was a game-changing year for the filmmaker, as she has put out not one but two feature films, both of which have received plenty of acclaim. While she essentially made them both simultaneously, leading to an interesting situation where both have been cited as their “feature directing debut”, Language Lessons was the first to be seen. The film, centered on the forming of a bond between a Spanish instructor (Morales) and their student (Mark Duplass), received plenty of love upon its screenings at the Berlin Film Festival and SXSW, where it won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award, and is awaiting public release later this year (our review here).
Just a few short months after that film played at festivals, Morales has dropped their next feature, streaming exclusively on Hulu. Plan B is a teen sex comedy in the mold of classics like Superbad and American Pie, but it brings a fresh new perspective by viewing the genre through the eyes of two young women of color. Unlike the quest for the straight white men to lose their virginity that we’ve seen drive these films in the past, Plan B focuses on the desperate scramble for Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Moroles) to obtain birth control after a sexual encounter takes an unfortunate turn.
Subverting the tropes of these dated comedic genres is nothing new for the film’s producing team of Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, and Dina Hillier, who have been responsible for projects like Cobra Kai and Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. They knew exactly what they were doing when they brought Morales on board to direct the project. As Hurwitz puts it, “Twenty minutes into our first meeting with Natalie, we knew she was the perfect filmmaker to helm Plan B. Her vision was crystal clear, her passion was infectious, and her connection to the material was undeniable. Even though she had never directed a feature before, you’d never know it. She was a pleasure to work with every single day and we absolutely love the end result!”
Written by Prathi Srinivasan and Joshua Levy, Plan B is a hilarious and genuinely touching exploration of life for these two women at this age, filtered through that lens of the raunchy teen sex comedy (our review here). Recently I spoke with Morales about her whirlwind year, what makes Plan B so special, and why she knew that she needed to be the one to direct it.
Check out my interview with Natalie Morales below:
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