Lulu Danger is a waitress in a coffee shop managed by her husband, Shane, in a small town in the early 1990s. One evening while watching television, Lulu sees an advertisement for a mysterious, upcoming live show to be held at the town's hotel called “An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn; For One Magical Night Only.” Lulu recognizes Beverly from a series of photos she keeps hidden in a dresser drawer and becomes excited. Meanwhile, Shane becomes incensed when he learns that Lulu's brother, Adjay, has more money than him and that he keeps his life's savings in a lockbox at the spice store he owns. With the help of his dimwitted employees, Carl and Tyrone, Shane steals the lockbox, though Adjay quickly recognizes Shane as the culprit. Later, at the laundromat, decrying his situation, Adjay meets a drifter named Colin who offers to retrieve the lockbox in exchange for $200. Colin goes to the Danger household, where Lulu catches him snooping outside and mistakes him for a friend of Shane's. Colin pulls a gun on Shane and demands the lockbox, but, when he panics, Lulu takes charge of the situation, taking the gun from Colin, retrieving the lockbox, and forcing Colin to drive her to the hotel. Colin and Lulu check into the hotel, where they begin a bizarre flirtation characterized by Lulu making romantic overtures towards Colin before abruptly pulling back and Colin making awkward sexual advances on Lulu that he immediately regrets. Beverly checks into the hotel along with his sidekick, a Scottish man named Rodney. Beverly and Lulu immediately recognize one another, though Beverly—who appears to be subverbal and communicates only through a series of grunts— does not indicate this to Rodney, who harbors secret homosexual feelings for him. Behind Rodney's back, Beverly attempts to arrange a meeting with Lulu by sending a letter to her room, but Rodney intercepts it and drugs Beverly. When Lulu arrives to meet Beverly, she instead finds Rodney wearing synchronized swimming makeup; he tells her not to come between him and Beverly. On the night of the show, Beverly apparently falls ill and the event is postponed for 24 hours, only to become postponed for another day as Colin, Lulu, Beverly, and Rodney all jockey for one another's affections and Shane arrives at the hotel in search of the lockbox. The nature of the show remains elusive and guests speculate as to what it will entail. A despondent Colin has sex witha woman he meets in the hotel bar, only to learn that she's a prostitute. Later, he confesses the liaison to Lulu, who becomes upset. Colin further admits that he had been a virgin up until that point. Later, demanding to know the reason for Lulu's fixation on Beverly, she confesses that he was her poetry professor in college and that he left his wife for her; in the midst of their affair, he apparently drowned while the pair were on vacation, an event which emotionally destroyed her. Lulu, Colin, and other guests gather for the show, which turns out to be a simple musical revue in which Rodney and Beverly perform whimsical Scottish folk melodies. Beverly suddenly becomes articulate, singing in an incongruous alto and regaling the audience with stories of his time visiting Scotland. Addressing Lulu, he gives a heartfelt speech about the nature of lost love, apologizing for breaking her heart and telling Rodney that, while he loves him as a friend, he has no romantic feelings for him. The event ends when Shane and Carl crash the show while Lawrence steals the lockbox from Colin's room. A fight erupts between Colin, Shane, Carl, and hotel security. Following Beverly to his room, Lulu demands to know why Beverly faked his death. Beverly confesses that the decision was impulsive and that he didn't really have a reason; he further admits everything he says onstage is similarly impulsive and that he's unsure he meant anything he said. A heartbroken Lulu leaves. Lulu and Colin meet in the hotel bar, where Lulu tries to make amends for her treatment of him. When F.R. David's "Words" begins to play—a song neither have heard before—Lulu invites Colin onto the dance floor and the pair share an exuberant dance that ends with her jumping into his arms. Later they return to their room to have sex, but Lulu falls asleep while Colin undresses. As Colin gets into bed, Lulu wakes up and the pair tell each other “I love you.”
In February 2017, it was announced Aubrey Plaza, Emile Hirsch, Jemaine Clement, Matt Berry, and Craig Robinson joined the cast of the film, with Jim Hosking directing from a screenplay he wrote with David Wike. Sam Bisbee, Theodora Dunlap, Lucas Toh, Emily Leo and Andy Starke serve as producers on the film, while David Gordon Green, Hosking, Richard Garber, and Lance Acord serve as executive producers under their Park Pictures, Rook Films, Wigwam Films, and Film4 Productions banners, respectively.
Release
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In May 2018, Universal Pictures acquired North American distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States on October 19, 2018. It was released in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2018, by Picturehouse Entertainment.
Critical response
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn received mixed reviews from film critics. It holds a 51% approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 49 reviews, with a weighted average score of 5.37/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn unites an intriguing array of comedic talents for a thoroughly unusual outing that proves itself disappointingly difficult to recommend." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
