Humpday

Director: Lynn Shelton

Writer: Lynn Shelton

Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

Country: US

Theatrical Release Date: July 10, 2009

Synopsis: Sometimes male bonding can go a little too far. When Andrew unexpectedly shows up on Ben's doorstep late one night, the two old college friends immediately fall into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship. To save Ben from domestication, Andrew invites Ben to a party at a sex-positive commune. Everyone there plans on making erotic art films for the local amateur porn festival and Andrew wants in. They run out of booze and ideas, save for one: Andrew should have sex with Ben, on camera. It's not gay; it's beyond gay. It's not porn; it's an art project. The next day, they find themselves unable to back down from the dare. And there's nothing standing in their way - except Ben's wife Anna, heterosexuality, and certain mechanical questions. [Synopsis courtesy of film's official website]

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Round-Up: “Lynn Shelton’s marvelous chamber comedy ‘Humpday’ butts up against the same sort of taboos as ‘Bruno,’ and in its fumbling, semi-improvised way, it’s equally hilarious and even more subversive,” notes David Edelstein for New York Magazine about the “other gay movie,” about two straight best friends who decide to have sex on a dare. “It’s a dramatic neutron bomb, exploding inner lives while leaving social structures intact… ‘Humpday’ is a bigger threat to homophobes than ‘Brüno’ because there aren’t any flamers on display. Gay, straight, bi—it’s all shades of gray.” J. Hoberman in the Village Voice also compares the two films: “Just as ‘Bruno’ is more of a comment on celebrity culture than the love (or hate) that dare not speak its name, ‘Humpday’ is actually less a queer comedy than a satiric view of macho. Appreciative as Shelton may be of her dudes, she has another agenda. Each in his own way, the guys have been freaked by a manifestation of assertive female sexuality—although the term ‘pussy-whipped’ is never used.” Spout’s Karina Longworth calls it a “whip-smart, uproariously funny comedy which uses a dumb, drunken, ‘bros will be bros’ dare as the in point to talk about, amongst other things, the inevitable loss of self in long term relationships and the ongoing conquest to reconcile who we really are with who we’d like to think we could be… More grown up (and interested in the emotional pitfalls of what it means to grow up) than many recent American DIY films, and far more accessible to a non-film-savvy audience than Duplass’ last Sundance entry ‘Baghead,’ ‘Humpday’ may usher in the moment when some notable tropes of what we once called mumblecore can be successfully applied to more mainstream genre fare without the uinitiated turning off.”

YouTube Trailer: