Column:
'Humpday' humor not for everyone
Published Sept. 4, 2009
Two straight guy friends get messed up and decide to have sex on camera for an amateur porn competition. Do I have your attention yet?
This is the story of "Humpday," which is actually not only a celebration of the halfway-through-the-workweek Wednesday, but also so much more than "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" with porn. The convincing performances by Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard elevate what could have been a contrived oddity to a real diamond in the rough — an original, funny and sincere meditation on male friendship in adulthood.
We are introduced to straight-laced professional Ben (Duplass) and his adoring wife (Alycia Delmore), white picket fence Seattle yuppies who are trying to have a child. Enter Andrew (Leonard), Ben's college bud whose life has taken a significantly different path.
Andrew is a failed artist (he's never finished a project) and globetrotting drifter who pops in at random times. Of course, Leonard's free-spirit Andrew shakes up things quite a bit; he and Ben skip a nice get-to-know-you-dinner with the wife to rage at a house called Dionysus, where the sexuality is open and spirits flow freely. It is in this drunken, free love stupor that the buddies hear of Humpfest — an amateur (but artful) pornography festival — and decide they could submit their own earth shattering, artistic erotica: two straight guy friends "doing it" on camera. ("It's not gay — it's beyond gay!")
This of course sets into motion a series of awkwardly funny incidents and conversations that dictate the rest of the film. In the wrong hands, these are potentially dangerous waters to tread. But where other movies would have gone for the obvious, writer-director Lynn Shelton unearths a kind of poignancy one does not expect.
"Humpday" has a lot to say about homoeroticism and affection of male friendships. In one straight-to-the-point scene, Ben and Andrew play a particularly physical game of one-on-one basketball, ending up entangled together on the ground. Shelton uses her kooky story device not to shock and titillate, but to frame a grander statement of how adult males interact, socially and physically.
Technically, the film's shoestring budget shows. Instead of letting that create an obstacle, "Humpday" wears its humble resources on its sleeve. Shot entirely with a handheld camera, the film fittingly feels like an amateur documentary. This helps accentuate the dead-on, believable and loveable performances from Duplass and Leonard.
Lynn Shelton has certainly made a horse of a different color. The chatty, realistic comedy rests somewhere between the mumblecore wave of indie cinema and the laughably awkward humor of "The Office." Like that show, portions of the dialogue in "Humpday" are improvised. Shelton entrusts a great deal to her leading men; the audience has to like them, believe they are friends, laugh at their hair-brained scheme and yet understand why they feel like they need to go through with it. They pull it off with flying colors though, and the often-hilarious exchanges between the two save the film's tendency to ramble.
"Humpday," though not for all tastes, is a winner. It's an undeniably original story that balances humor and sensitivity flawlessly thanks to the leads' dedicated performances, a refreshing installment in the bromance trend that actually has something to say. If you're looking for a fun way to get through the week, check out "Humpday" at Ragtag Cinema through Sept. 10.