Sometimes, friends are exactly what you don’t need. For every smidgeon of love and support, there’s a wave of loyalty and peer pressure that comes with it, taking a bad thought and turning it into a frightening reality. A very 2020s version of that precise tension is found in Jessica Barr’s quietly ambitious feature debut The Plan, where a get-together for a tight-knit group of Gen Zs proves that having your homie’s back isn’t the best thing for anyone.
It’s a dusky evening in downtown Los Angeles. Pent-up Mads (An-Li Bogan) is expecting friends round, yet she’s doing little to warm up the atmosphere, an argument with significant other Emily (Eve Lindley) creates an air of tension before anyone else has even arrived. A slow trickle of pals with luggage changes the chemistry somewhat, but the mood remains the same, and it’s soon clear that everyone’s baggage isn’t just their suitcases. They’re jetting off to a graduation, a celebration that’s crucially not theirs, and they’re less excited for the trip and rather more terrified, for the fate that meets them at the other end isn’t a happy one. With group pledges and dedicated mantras, their journey might be well for the greater good, even if it means doing the unthinkable to get there.
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‘Timely’ doesn’t really begin to cut it when it comes to how close The Plan’s finger is to the pulse. Populated by a refreshingly diverse cast of young up-and-comers, there’s an authenticity to the relationships that pull the drama into grounded, uncomfortable places. Non-consensual polyamory proves to be a hurdle for three characters that shakes the foundations of the cause, and a wild card character’s bitterness at an off-screen break-up gives a classic ‘I think you should leave’ element to what is essentially Four Lions for the TikTok generation. The pettiness of youth provides an amusing counterpoint to the weighty backdrop of the piece, deepening the moral shades of grey as these characters who would probably be more comfortably at home in a high-school comedy are on the precipice of falling into a political thriller.
Maintaining that pace and tension is also no easy feat considering the gauntlet Barr throws down for herself and her cast, choosing to shoot the drama in one long take (save one well-hidden cut – hey, if Roger Deakins can do it…). Without the safety net of the editing room, it’s simply the responsibility of the actors to keep the wheels spinning, and they do so ably and compellingly, entirely convincing as a tentative friendship group brought together by an angry ideology and very little else. Ryan Simpkins’ nervy, likeable Evan is particularly emblematic of this. Her happy-go-lucky charisma is consistently being off-set by a refusal to fully acknowledge the consequences of her potential actions, and finds consistently interesting ways of disassociating and deflecting when confronted with the hard truth. Logan Miller provides some good comic relief as Toby, the member of the group masking the most trepidation, and Jordan Hull’s lovelorn Taylor effectively encapsulates the beauty and stupidity of young love torn asunder on the edge of oblivion. It’s an ensemble that feels like a group of actors who all have promising careers ahead of them, and The Plan might just be one of those moments where people look back and say, “wow, I can’t believe they were in that too!”
When the film seems to be on the verge of going in a dangerous loop of similar plotlines, there’s a smart break that allows some room to breathe in the ethereal spectacle of the outside world, a twilight vision that reminds everyone of what they might be about to lose. At a cool hour and a quarter, Barr knows when to quit, refusing to overextend the drama beyond the limitations of its one shot structure. There’s the possibility of being left a little wanting from the film’s deft dance around the specifics of its politics, yet its lack of sharp focus is perhaps what will make this endure. Young people have too often had a right to be angry at the unfairness of the world, and just how they choose to exercise the power we all have is a shaky thing. Barr’s confident assembly of a generation’s voices is a modest snapshot of that problem in this moment, and here’s hoping it will echo into the next.
THE PLAN HAD ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2026
