Buddy flick takes bold turn in 'Humpday'

By Chuck Campbell (Contact)
Thursday, August 20, 2009

Committed heterosexual friends Ben (Mark Duplass), left, and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) debate the possibility of reluctantly taking their friendship to the next level in 'Humpday.'

Humpday

Rated R for some strong sexual content, pervasive language and a scene of drug use

Length: 93 minutes

Released: July 10, 2009 NY/Seattle

Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard

Director: Lynn Shelton
Writer: Lynn Shelton
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

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"Humpday" is a mundane talkfest at its foundation, but writer-director Lynn Shelton builds on it such an unconventional premise that the movie proves memorable and provocative.

Ben (Mark Duplass) is a settled-down 30-something in Seattle, working on having a baby with his wife, Anna (Alycia Delmore). Late one night, after the couple is too tired to, um, couple, along comes Ben's old college pal Andrew (Joshua Leonard), a 30-something vagabond who's been wandering aimlessly around the world.

The friends are overjoyed to see each other, embracing affectionately, marveling over their plump bellies, declaring their mutual love for each other. ... Inevitably, though, their different paths lead them to question each other and themselves. When did Ben become such a conformist? Has Andrew accomplished anything worthwhile?

Nothing new so far.

However, "Humpday" eventually works to an outlandish twist, executed in a near-believable fashion by Shelton's script and the finessed acting of Duplass and Leonard. Andrew finds his way into an artistic enclave populated with bohemians of varied sexual tastes. He lures Ben over, and after a night of drinking and smoking pot, the two learn of a local amateur porn festival and are challenged to come up with a porn of their own - with a fresh idea.

After a little banter, Andrew jokes that he and Ben should have sex together, because no one would expect that of two straight men. With the hipsters cheering them on, the friends engage in a battle of dares and braggadocio until they actually set a date and place to make just such a movie.

Lost in the equation is the fact that neither man is remotely attracted to each other. And, oh yeah, Ben has a wife who's already wary enough of Andrew.

The will-they-or-won't-they? story unfolds in typical indie style - a whole lot of chatter and a little bit of action. Shelton relies too heavily on long conversations and redundant points, not to mention Andrew's obnoxious laugh. Yet there's ongoing tension from the awkward situation, the way the friends attempt to let each other off the hook while sticking to their own guns. Plus the situation is infinitely more complicated by Anna (portrayed by Delmore with more expressive eyes than intonations), a plot turn that ultimately shifts into a copout.

But Duplass and Leonard connect as BFFs, two sides of the same coin, and the few physical moments they're allowed are comical highlights: a game of pick-up basketball where male bonding turns into horn-locking, and the critical encounter in the hotel room, where they must decide how they should make a porn together, if they should make a porn together and if they even can make a porn together. Leonard, especially, conveys the poignant three-dimensionality of a conflicted man who seems to acknowledge a painful emptiness in his life.

"Humpday" isn't a porn, and it's not a gay movie - and considering the actors' ordinary looks and their characters' disdain for the notion of having sex with another man, it's not even a gay-fantasy movie. Instead, this is a lighthearted, and sometimes touching, bromance where "friends with benefits" isn't necessarily an asset.

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