Humpday

Humpday (Director: Lynn Shelton): Two reviews in a row about films by women dir­ectors about the del­icate rela­tion­ships between men. But Humpday and The Hurt Locker (review) couldn’t be more dif­ferent. Where the latter rat­cheted up the ten­sion with action and explo­sions, Lynn Shelton’s film builds it with queasy laughter and an out­rageous game of chicken.

Ben (Mark Duplass) is a thirty-something trans­port­a­tion planner, hap­pily mar­ried to Anna (Alycia Delmore) and living in a nice house in Seattle. And then his old col­lege buddy Andrew (Joshua Leonard) arrives in the middle of the night, looking for a place to crash after returning from an artists’ colony in Mexico. It’s clear that the two have taken dif­ferent paths since col­lege, but Ben doesn’t like the feeling that he’s become a cliche, so he accom­panies his friend to a wild party at the home of a bisexual artist Andrew’s just met. After many sub­stances have been con­sumed, the talk turns to Humpfest, Seattle’s ama­teur porn contest.

In a moment of drunken one-up-manship, Ben sug­gests to Andrew that they should make a tape of the two of them having sex. It will be the greatest art pro­ject ever, he says, it will be “beyond gay.” Challenging his “artist” buddy to con­tribute to an art pro­ject is a sly form of dare, and Andrew can’t say no. Even in the sober light of day, the two of them can’t seem to back down. The best scenes are of Andrew trying to let Ben back out. “I know this scene isn’t really for you,” he says, which only gets Ben to dig in his heels.

Shelton has per­fectly cap­tured the com­pet­it­ive­ness of men, even modern sens­itive men. The subtle chem­istry between Ben and Andrew is a joy to watch, even at its most uncom­fort­able. Each man’s fears are driving this ridicu­lous battle of wills. Ben’s afraid he’s lost whatever edge he might have had in col­lege, and Andrew feels that his artist per­sona is really just a phony mask cov­ering up a much more reg­ular guy. The comedy is sharp, but for me it was the comedy of recognition.

It’s also bit­ter­sweet, as these two guys realize that their friend­ship, genuine as it is, has changed as their lives have changed. I hope this won’t spoil the ending, but the emo­tional release the two friends even­tu­ally achieve is more ful­filling than any “money shot” could ever be.

P.S. You might also enjoy Shelton’s last film, another smart explor­a­tion of male friend­ship called My Effortless Brilliance (review).

Official site of the film

(8/10)

Tagged as: bromance, comedy, friendship, homosexuality, manhood