Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Visual:		4.0
Audio:		6.0
Acting:		8.0
Writing:		8.0
Score:		8.0

Director(s):	Lynn Shelton
Writer(s):	Lynn Shelton
Starring:	Alycia Delmore • Joshua Leonard • Mark Duplass
Genre:	Comedy
Release Date:	July 17, 2009
Rated:

Humpday's premise, at a glance, could be mistaken for an ancient proverb. If two straight guys bone in a hotel room and only a camera sees it, does it make them gay?

The two guys are best buds Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard), who come to this junction during a house party as a pot and alcohol-infused decision. Andrew is a scruffy backpacker surprising his college buddy Ben, now a happily married working stiff. Inebriated, they figure it would be both artsy and hilarious to submit to the Humpfest amateur porn festival a video of two totally straight guys having gay sex for the first time. An easy way in for a set-up, sure, but how else do you suggest it consensually?

In another film, once the hangover kicks in, the plot would have ended. "Dude, about last night..." "We were drunk. Let's never mention it ever again." "Yeah, okay." While it isn't a "bromance" film—that is to say, it's not about two men becoming friends as we've seen in recent hits like I Love You, Man or Pineapple Express—Humpday questions what that term signifies, deconstructing what it really means for two men to have a loving relationship, albeit one that's purely platonic. The introduction of sex in this story puts a unique spin on Ben's clash with his frustrated but accommodating wife Anna (Alycia Delmore). When a guy has that deep connection with another guy, a sense of trust and understanding that he fails to share with his own wife, what does the sex add, really, aside from the obvious?

What follows is a reflective but also hilarious look at male bonding. Humpday's humor is the kind of everyday peer humor that doesn't come from forced situations. When a funny line is said, the characters laugh along with us. The dialogue sounds largely and obviously improvised, in a style I like to call witty realism. The speech pattern is realistic, but what's being spoken is so laden that you know it's well prepared, making sure that there are enough funny lines and key revelations in each scene. It helps that the three actors are great at improv. Mark Duplass is a front-and-center in the mumblecore movement which specializes in this style, Joshua Leonard is full of the effortless party warmth that represents the best of your funniest stoner friends (you might remember him from a little movie called The Blair Witch Project), and Alyce Delmore gets to be the one who sells each situation with her convincingly flustered reactions.

Unlike other prominent mumblecore films, Humpday is less of a challenge to get into, being consistently entertaining—perhaps tied with The Hangover as the funniest film of the year so far. Writer-director Lynn Shelton maintains a fun will-they-won't-they teasing throughout the film, not unlike a mainstream comedy's romantic courtship. The discomfort is even funnier when "the moment" arrives and we're faced with two stocky dudes in a hotel room awkwardly trying to figure out what to do.

Now with a wife, a house, a 9-5 job and talks of having children, Ben feels compelled to prove that he still has a side in him that's just as free-spirited as Andrew, even at the risk of alienating his wife. Meanwhile, Andrew is terrified that his apprehensiveness means he's not as open-minded as he wants to be, using this "art project" to convince himself of his own projected personality. For this reason, neither of them are willing to back down from the project, like some kind of bohemian posturing. This is the theme that keeps the film above a one-joke premise. It doesn't just explore sexuality, but identity, as well. The characters have an idea of who they want to be, but it doesn't always fit. Or as Ben puts it to Andrew, "I'm not as white-picket fence as you think I am... and you're not as Kerouac as you think you are."

Humpday feels like those Apatow films several years later, when the romantic relationship (often seen as a mature step for the slacker protagonist in those films) has consumed the guy or the girl's former identity. If you're their age, you might have seen it happen in your circle of friends. Shifting out of your bros and jumping into a relationship is easy. It's navigating through it amidst all your bubbling urges and eventual identity crisis that's the mark of growing up.