Plan C
2022 · 8m · USA
Directed by Lauren Caster
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, provocative
Max, unemployed, single and pregnant, spirals into depression about her body and her future — until her best friend's offhand confession about once selling foot pics sends her down a risky OnlyFans rabbit hole.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone wants to call this provocative, but the real move here is that it refuses to moralize—it lets Max's desperation and dark humor coexist without flinching, which is rarer and meaner than any shock value could be.
Caster's formal restraint—the way she frames intimacy and shame without sentiment—sits in conversation with the lineage of unflinching pregnancy cinema, from Varda to Dunye, though the OnlyFans premise threatens to overwhelm the precision of what she's actually built.
The entire film pivots on Caster's performance choice to play Max's self-deprecation as something genuinely funny rather than wincing or tragic—one tonal decision that transforms what could've been exploitation commentary into something that actually *feels* like a real woman thinking her way through an impossible corner.
Reviews
Recognized for 'Bold and Honest Filmmaking' — Caster wrote, directed, produced and starred in Plan C while seven months pregnant with her first child, tackling pregnancy taboos around depression and body image that 'we aren't talking about enough.'
An unemployed, single, and pregnant woman struggles with depression and uncertainty — with a friend's help, she develops a plan that empowers her to pursue a new direction with renewed confidence.
Festivals
- Fear No Film Festival (Utah Arts Festival) 2022, Grand Jury Honorable Mention for Bold and Honest Filmmaking
- Portland Film Festival 2022
- IndieX Film Fest 2022, Nominee — Best First Time Female Director
- Oaxaca Film Festival 2022
- Dumbo Film Festival 2022
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2023