Humpday (2009)

In its execution, HUMPDAY is a sort of mumblecore film for audiences a decade past the 20-something mumblecore sell-by date. It's also a bromance film that strips away the mostly crass and bratty gloss of the Hollywood bromance films of the last few years. More profound than provocative, more dramatic than broadly comedic, HUMPDAY might be one of my favorite hidden treasures of 2009.

The premise of HUMPDAY will keep many viewers away, and even for those who watch, its appeal might be limited to a certain age group and social station. As it happens, I happen to be the film's target audience, and its charms worked effortlessly on me. The film's poster and taglines point out that the movie is about two old college buddies, both straight, who decide to make a gay porn film. And yes, this does factor into the plot. But it's the catalyst for much deeper stuff, the spark of significant conversations and hilarious exchanges. As directed by a woman, Lynn Shelton, HUMPDAY is more accurately a meditation on masculinity and jealousy. It's ridiculous premise will, sadly, shield some audiences from a film with deep intellectual and emotional layers.

The silly construct comes about when, in the middle of the night, Ben (Mark Duplass) and his wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) are visited by Andrew (Joshua Leonard), a former college buddy of Ben's. The two haven't seen each other in years, and it's instantly apparent that they were once thick as thieves, the "I love you, man"s coming on faster than Ben can explain Andrew's place in his past to his cautiously bemused wife. The years that have passed have not changed Andrew, still a Kerouac in his own mind, a vagabond dreamer, an artist without a portfolio. Ben, on the other hand, has married and moved to the suburbs. Like so many men in his (and my) age group - and if my wife is reading this, I mean no disrespect - he has forced himself to cut loose his once dominant and now less practical passions for what feels right as a married guy.

Ben quickly realizes upon Andrew's reentry into his life, however, that his passions were merely dormant, not gone completely. Seeing how wild and free Andrew still can be, he feels the need to prove to Andrew (and himself) that just because a guy is married doesn't mean he can't have some fun. The fun comes in the form of a wild party involving lots of alcohol and some marijuana. And before it's over, Ben has forgotten about the nice dinner Anna had planned for the three of them. Even more crazily, he has entered into a dare with Andrew in the company of the other artsy partygoers to make a gay porn film starring himself and his friend. Two straight guys making art, it'll be "beyond gay," they figure. True to standard macho posing, neither feels willing to back down from the dare once both of them are sober the next day, even if the dare itself will be far from macho. The hotel room is rented, the camera equipment is being gathered.

Like the mumblecore genre it loosely follows (Duplass is a star in that low-budget, talkie genre), HUMPDAY's charms are the conversations throughout the week that lead to that dreaded, scheduled event. These two men can say "I love you" to each other easily, drunk or sober. They can rub up against one another on the basketball court. But can they use their bodies to make "art" together? And is it even art, or something else?

Naturally, the plans test Ben's marriage and force him to question decisions he's made along the way and feelings he's supressed from his past. I found myself so able to relate to some of the natural, largely-improved conversations so well that I stopped laughing. It was too real and sometimes too relateable. I think every young man hits a spot after getting married where the grass is always greener, and under the light banter of comedy here, HUMPDAY has this serious undertow. It is a film about society's judgment of male love in its platonic friendship form. It's about the need for the artist to be more provocative than is perhaps sometimes necessary, to the point where a relationship doesn't seem valid unless certain lines are crossed. I was engrossed instead of grossed out.

Surprisingly, HUMPDAY is nowhere near as graphic as I'd have suspected, with no more foul language, nudity or sex than any R-rated Hollywood film. The natural performances, especially those of Duplass and Leonard as the two old friends, are so real as to make you forget you're watching a movie. By the time the film makes it to the hotel room where the porn film is to be shot, the moments that ensue are capable of making you laugh uncontrollably and simultaneously giving you serious pause. The men begin to dissect and unravel their own masculinity, their relationship with one another and to women, their perceptions of their own successes and failures.

HUMPDAY is not a perfect film. Visually and stylistically, it doesn't aim high enough - content to be a low-budget mumblecore cousin when it was capable of more. It's matter-of-fact, turn-the-camera-on style of presentation satisfies the naturalism Shelton was likely going for but also threatens the film with moments that veer toward the mundane. Fortunately, this film is so good in terms of what it has to say and what it lets the audience think about that it makes up the difference.

I have always struggled with society's confusion over male friendship. Not having a close relationship with my own father and surrounding myself with more close female friends than male, I was nurtured by environment to be a much more gentle and emotionally-attentive friend, more willing to talk about feelings than just football. It's made it virtually impossible for me to have a "bromance" of my own. I'm not sure I'd understand those perameters. HUMPDAY made me sad, in some ways, because Ben and Andrew were willing to have a friendship so intense that they would take it to extremes. They also had respect enough for each other to do what was best for that friendship in the end.

Happy HUMPDAY.

3.5 out of 4