The best movies of 2021 include three filmed in Syracuse

'Plan B' movie filmed in Syracuse

"Plan B," a new American High movie filmed in Syracuse, premieres May 28, 2021, on Hulu. Natalie Morales directs the teen comedy film starring Victoria Moroles and Kuhoo Verma.

Three movies filmed in Syracuse have been named among the best releases of 2021: “Paper Spiders,” “Plan B” and “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise.”

Paper Spiders” ranked as one of the top 10 movies this year, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The coming-of-age drama, about a high school student’s (LaVie Owen) senior year being turned upside down when her mother (Lili Taylor) begins to suffer from a mental illness, scored a 100% fresh rating on the site’s Tomatometer thanks to widespread critical acclaim.

Meanwhile, “Plan B” was praised as an “essential comedy movie of 2021″ by Fox Orlando alongside big titles like “Free Guy” and “The French Dispatch.” The American High movie follows a straight-laced high school student (Kuhoo Verma) who, after a regrettable first sexual encounter, gets help from her slacker best friend (Victoria Moroles) to search for a morning-after pill after the local pharmacist (played by “Super Troopers” star Jay Chandrasekhar) refuses to give them Plan B.

“Plan B” was also shouted out for one of the best movie moments of the year by UK’s The Guardian.

“Over the course of four and a half minutes, Plan B captures with cringeworthy precision an under-represented teenage girl experience: first-time sex that is not traumatic or revelatory, but boring – anti-climactic, incidental, very brief, unworthy of the hype,” Adrian Horton wrote in the British publication. “Verma and Cook hit all the humbling notes: impulsive lust, disillusionment (theres’s a Squatty Potty involved), shock, shame. It’s an endearing, searing and hilarious ride, whose stressful consequences for Sunny only casts the increasingly dystopian nightmare of US reproductive rights in starker relief.”

And both “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise” and “Plan B” were named among the 12 “best Hulu original movies” released this year, according to SlashFilm. “Noise,” also an American High release, follows an audio-obsessed high school senior (Keean Johnson) who goes on a road trip to record his favorite sounds before he must undergo brain surgery that will render him completely deaf.

The Ultimate Playlist of Noise

Keean Johnson stars in 'The Ultimate Playlist of Noise,' a new American High movie on Hulu that filmed in the Syracuse area.

All three movies were filmed in Central New York, including at Syracuse Studios (the former A.V. Zogg Middle School in Liverpool) and the Greater Syracuse Soundstage (formerly the nano film hub in DeWitt). “Plan B” also used the Main Street Pharmacy in Marcellus, Onondaga Lake Parkway, and the Hilltop Restaurant and Cedar House Bowling Center in Skaneateles; “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise” featured Green Lakes State Park, The Gem diner, the former Lakeview Bowling Center, and the Blume Again Dairy farm in Jordan; and “Paper Spiders” utilized the Red Mill Inn in Baldwinsville, the B’ville Diner, a Thrifty Shopper store, the Syracuse University campus, and two bars in Armory Square: Al’s Wine & Whiskey Lounge and the Syracuse Suds Factory.

Paper Spiders

Lili Taylor, left, and Stefania LaVie Owen appear in a scene from "Paper Spiders," a new movie filmed in Syracuse.

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