Review of Humpday (2009) by Thomas J — 22 Jun 2010

Ben: What a wild life you live, my friend.

A film that basically explores the very limits of where a bromance can take two people. A somewhat funny human comedy, using the mumblecore format to achieve an awkwardly humorous film.

Mark Duplass stars as Ben, a married man, trying to conceive a child with his wife Anna, played by Alycia Delmore. One late night, Ben's old college buddy Andrew shows up at his house, with Ben and Anna deciding to let him stay. Not having seen Andrew in a long time, Ben starts hanging out with his buddy again, leading to a drunken party where Ben learns of an annual film festival that has a certain twist to it, being that it involves amateur pornography. Being very drunk, Ben and Andrew come up with a plan to win said festival, by creating a film featuring two straight guys having sex; which is considered by them to be "beyond gay". And the comedy ensues!

For anyone not familiar with the mumblecore format in film, it essentially involves a shoestring budget, mostly non-actors, and not as much a script, but an idea for where each scene goes, playing all off of improvisational dialogue. All these elements are certainly applied to this film, however it is effective for what is going on here.

As far as the story goes, it basically goes very far to have an honest look at male friendship. Whether or not the inevitable happens is besides the point, because much of the film is spent analyzing the concept and putting perspective on how far friends can go with each other. And while it may not have been very entertaining to me throughout, I certainly admired the film enough to recommend it as something neat and different.

Andrew: That's the tricky thing. It's the difference between this and bungee jumping, is that bungee jumping, you just walk to the edge and jump...

Ben: ...and the whole thing takes care of you...

Andrew: ...and you don't have to have a hard-on to bungee jump.