Director Kay Cannon on ‘Blockers’

Near the beginning of the new comedy ‘Blockers,’ three parents--played by Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz--send their three daughters off to senior prom. The girls are played by Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon.

One of them just happens to have left her laptop open, revealing a text conversation among the best friends.

After a few rounds of emoji decoding, the panicked parents realize their daughters have made a pact to lose their virginity on prom night. They set out to foil that plan.

‘Blockers’ plays like a raunchy comedy, but it’s surprisingly thoughtful. The young women are no dummies, and two of them are confident about their sexuality, while the third friend is still figuring that part out.

The parents, on the other hand...get into all sorts of trouble in their rush to shut down their daughters’ plan.

Blockers is directed by our guest today, Kay Cannon. She’s got many comedy writing credits to her name including ‘30 Rock’ and the ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies. Blockers is her directorial debut.

She tells us about the all-night writing session that landed her a job on ‘30 Rock,’ and sticks up for her short-lived show ‘Girlboss’ on Netflix.  She also tells us about facing a group of all-male writers and producers while she changed the original script for ‘Blockers’ to make it more timely and feminist.