Dude (film)

Dude is a 2018 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Olivia Milch and written by Milch and Kendall McKinnon. The film stars Lucy Hale, Kathryn Prescott, Alexandra Shipp, Awkwafina, Austin Butler and Michaela Watkins.

It was released on April 20, 2018, by Netflix.

Plot
Best friends Lily, Chloe, Amelia, and Rebecca are at junior prom, where Chloe's brother Thomas takes Lily onto the field and she tells him she cannot imagine leaving. They almost kiss when Rebecca and the others tell them their hired limousine has arrived.

Lily takes Rebecca and Amelia home, taking Chloe to meet Thomas in the mountains. The three separate. Thomas is killed in a car crash on the way home. At the funeral, Chloe hugs her mother, crying as Lily remains silent.

A year later, the girls arrive at school stoned. Lily talks with Noah about prom, and then she and Chloe walk down the halls, recalling how many times they have done so.

Lily arranges parties at various houses. When the girls get back to the car they see their "Donkey Bong" to which Chloe replies by telling Lily that she needs to hide the donkey bong better; Lily tells Chloe that it was the Donkey Bong's last few weeks of high school, and he should be around for it. Amelia tells Rebecca her parents are divorcing, saying they only see her as an extension of their ego. Lily and Chloe see their pot dealer friend, Biff, who reminds them of Thomas's favourite strain, “strawberry cough”.

Lily argues with the principal about her strengths and weaknesses. Chloe walks onto the field, remembering the previous year. She plays Thomas's last voice message. Sam consoles her, asking her to prom. Noah serenades Lily as a promposal but fails. As she and Chloe talk, Rebecca barges in, telling them someone caught her masturbating over the school librarian, Bemis.

The girls then go to a house party. Noah arrives, apologising to Lily by offering her a joint and then makes out with her. The cops arrive to break up the party.

Lily and Sam sell prom tickets the next day when Lily finds out that Liv was traumatized by James, who got her in trouble by writing a dirty joke in an essay. After she scolds him, Noah texts her to come over to fool around. The next day, his ex threatens Lily.

The girls go to another party, and Chloe tells Lily she got into New York University but wants to go to the University of California Santa Barbara. Lily becomes very upset and retreats to a room with a boy from another school, Mike, and is raped. Chloe, Rebecca, and Amelia all ditch her; so she calls a taxi and cries all the way home.

The next morning, everyone visits her house, and she chides Amelia and Rebecca for not telling her about Chloe's acceptance letter. They all start badmouthing Lily, so she walks away. Chloe stops her, saying she is being selfish for wanting her not to be friends with people who did not know Thomas.

Angry, Lily drives down the street with a flashback of Thomas, stopping when she sees Rebecca at a coffee shop with her potential roommate and mocking them until a police officer comes up. Meaning to ask her why she is illegally parked, he then notices Donkey Bong in the back. Lily panics until the officer tells her that he won't ruin her life forever but will mess it up for at least a week.

Lily is forced by her mother to destroy the bong. The girls dodge her calls, leaving her alone. Noah tries to talk to Lily, but she remains stubborn, forcing him to walk away.

James helps Lily see she has been selfish. At prom, alone, she goes to the bathroom to cry. Rebecca talks to Bemis while Lily has a flashback of her and Thomas on the field declaring their love.

Lily apologises to Chloe for being intense about Thomas, saying the pain will never go away but that she cannot mourn what she could have been. They reconcile and go inside, where Lily apologises to Amelia and Rebecca. There, Chloe kicks Mike, and Noah's girlfriend breaks up with him. Sam takes a picture of the girls who then bury the remains of Donkey Bong with Jon Bong Jovi, Sean Bongery, and Bong Connery.

Lily practices her graduation speech in front of her friends, and then the entire school. At their family graduation party, Bemis arrives, introducing himself as “Immanuel”. Noah congratulates Lily on her speech and they kiss, and she has a photo taken with her brother and sister. Amelia then notices their marijuana brownies were given to their parents. Looking off into the sky and distant Los Angeles, the story ends.

Cast

 * Lucy Hale as Lily
 * Kathryn Prescott as Chloe Daniels
 * Alexandra Shipp as Amelia
 * Awkwafina as Rebecca
 * Alex Wolff as Noah
 * Brooke Smith as Lorraine Daniels
 * Jerry MacKinnon as Sam
 * Ronen Rubinstein as Mike
 * Satya Bhabha as Immanuel Bemis
 * Sydney Lucas as Olivia
 * Nora Dunn as Rosa
 * Ian Gomez as Jerry
 * Colton Dunn as Officer Higgins
 * Austin Abrams as James
 * Austin Butler as Thomas Daniels
 * Michaela Watkins as Jill
 * Jack McBrayer as Guy
 * Sasha Spielberg as Carrie
 * Claudia Doumit as Jessica
 * Artemis Pebdani as Sapphire
 * Esther Povitsky as Alicia
 * Stony Blyden as Stony

Production
On November 2, 2015, it was announced that Olivia Milch would make her directorial debut with the comedy film, titled Dude, based on her own script about four best high school girlfriends, with Lucy Hale starring. The script was listed in the 2013 Black List of best-unproduced scripts. Heather Rae, Langley Perer, Jimmy Miller, Andrew Duncan, and Jen Isaacson produced the film. The same month, Kathryn Prescott, Alexandra Shipp, Awkwafina, Alex Wolff, Satya Bhabha, Ronen Rubinstein and Austin Butler joined the cast of the film. In December 2015, Austin Abrams and Jerry McKinnon were also added.

Filming
Principal photography on the film began on November 30, 2015, in Los Angeles.

Release
In May 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film. They released the film on their service on April 20, 2018.