Dude is a 2018 comedy/drama about a group of teenage girlfriends who deal with life after high school.
You probably think you know everything you need to know about this movie by the title and brief summary alone, the premise of a gang of gal pals getting on with their lives an easy one, two, three. However, Olivia Milch‘s latest effort Dude is a little more than what it looks like, mixing its raw comedy with weighty drama far better than expected, making this high school flick a smart outing for this director’s debut.
From the start, it feels like we’re in for some standard over-the-top bratty girls rule the world party flick as four girls, Lily (Lucy Hale), Chloe (Kathryn Prescott), Amelia (Alexandra Shipp), and Rebecca (Awkwafina) head to a party. They’re blasting hip-hop, cursing like sailors, and hungry for boys. So far so good, as they hook up with more friends. However, this quickly turns dark when a classmate they are all very close with dies in an accident on the way home. It then shifts immediately to a year later as the girls are about to graduate, and while a sense of normality has returned to the school and the girls together seem back to their antics, this tragedy lingers as its anniversary creeps close.
Right away, it’s this dichotomy of humor and heartbreak that really keeps a curious balance to what should have been a throwaway party pass. Milch, who co-wrote the screenplay with Kendall McKinnon, never lets this death overwhelm the film, allowing it to simply be what it is, a reality that shapes the lives of these very mature and complicated young women. These girls are open with everything, obviously a lot of it centered on sex, including masturbation in school and ‘afternoon delight’, but it’s not as manipulative or obvious as it could have been, the girls remarkably authentic in trying to deal with growing up and great loss.
What’s more, they are slowly splintering, as each are developing different interests and plans for their futures. This creates more opportunities for sturdy laughs and well-earned drama. They are all quite popular, and as such, a bevy of boys make their plays, including the nerdy Noah (the always great to watch Alex Wolff) and sporty Sam (Jerry MacKinnon), generating a series of old standbys we’ve seen before.
Dude is not tame. It tackles girl issues with all the punctuation of an 80s boys-rule teen sex comedy leaving no word, euphemism, slang, action or otherwise left unturned and yet it’s never exploitive about it, the film always coming around to the personalities. It hides itself among the comedy but never loses touch of the reality, the girls all grounded by their relationships, homelives, and uncertainty. It’s strays off course a few times, with a few subplots that don’t quite pan out like they should, including Rebecca’s mad crush on a teacher, yet always gets back on track.
In all this are some good supporting characters, with Jack McBrayer a hippy-ish teacher who thinks he’s bonding with the kids, Brooke Smith as the mourning mother, and Nora Dunn all filling in as expected. However, it’s really the girls who make this worth a watch, Milch giving them plenty of room to run outside the box. It’s making some bold steps to break down a few hurdles, as a few women in film are currently trailblazing, and while it’s certainly aiming at a specific audience, it’s one of the better movies in the genre most anyone can appreciate. It’s streaming on Netflix right now.