It's time for a game of Drunk Notes with Alex. My big movie night most weeks is Friday. I normally start around 7 and can fit in 3 movies. I'll often start with a drink on the first movie and see where things take me. If I'm watching serious or really good movies, I tend to keep the drink count pretty low. If I'm watching old favorites or lightweight movies, the bourbon on the rocks will be flowing. On this night, I began with Meek'sCutoff. That one left me pretty perplexed, so I reverse course for the night and went with what I figured were lighter movies. Next was Set It Up. A lot of drinking happened for that one. I decided to finish off with Dude, which I figured was a female-led coming of age movie with a tone somewhat like Dope. Long story short, my memory of Dude is a little hazy and that movie got more serious than I expected.
Luckily, I took notes, which are surprisingly helpful.
Dude is written and directed by the co-screenwriter of Ocean's 8. At first I thought that is how she got Awkwafina for Dude, but it looks like it was the other way around. This movie was filmed in 2015 and didn't find distribution until now. That makes the casting of Lucy Hale (currently 29), Kathryn Prescott (27), Alexandra Shipp (26), and Awkwafina (29) as high schoolers a little more forgivable, since they would've been 27, 25, 24, and 27...which still is pretty ridiculous. This is mainly Hale's movie, but the other three get their moments. I liked the overall vibe of the movie. According to my notes "This really feels like a female perspective". I noticed that a lot of the humor was weed based (the dog getting high, for example), which felt like a bit of a crutch. When Lucy Hale gets pulled over by the cop who sees her bong, I love the line "I'm not going to ruin your life forever, but I am going to fuck it up for a week". I know that I'm supposed to live in a non-binary world where a movie doesn't have to be just a drama or just a comedy, but I sure would like to know what the filmmakers thought this movie was. I hate the word dramady, because it means nothing. It's not a dark comedy. Possibly a comedy with some darkness - something that's difficult to pull off. It certainly doesn't feel like a drama with a few laughs. I get why the movie had trouble finding a distributor.
I'm not sure what my opinion about the rape scene is (Btw, that's never a good sentence). The scene itself was well handled. It does a good job showing how something that the guy might think is pretty minor can be shattering on the receiving end. Hale plays the scene very well. The way it's handled afterwards is a little questionable. Really, anytime that there's a rape in a movie it should become the focus, right? I get why Olivia Milch wouldn't want that to dominate the rest of the movie though. The handling of it ends up being a little too simple. Someone kicks the guy in the balls and it's all better.
One last thing.
When the hell is this movie? I just assumed it was preset day, because nothing
I've heard about the movie said anything about when it was set and I don't
remember anything in the movie that clearly establishes a date. But all the
music seemed to be from the early 2000s or maybe late 90s. Is that when the
film or set, or is that music hip with the kids now?
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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