Review: ‘Humpday’

You would be hard pressed to find something more hot than the man love that goes on in Lynn Shelton’s ‘Humpday’. In fact, you can probably bet that you have never seen “bromance” like this before.

When this movie hit Sundance this past year it immediately started to get buzz because it has such a great storyline, and the characters Lynn created as so stimulating you cant help but fall in love with all of them. It was being touted as a “mumblecore” movie which at the time made absolutely no sense to me since that term does nothing to describe the actual genre, or style of the film. Basically what “mumblecore” really boils down to is low budget, indie films that are mostly improvised. Looking up that term on Wikipedia lends the names of Lynn Shelton and Mark Duplass (who along with Joshua Leonard stars in ‘Humpday’) as primary directors for this genre of film.

The story is the classic boy marries girl, boys best friend visits and they decide to make an amateur porn film of themselves having sex…wait, maybe not your classic story but one that comes off brilliantly. Ben (Mark Duplass) and Anna (Alycia Delmore) are a recently married couple who are trying to conceive their first child. After a ridiculous attempt the night before they are awakened by loud knocks on the front door at 2am. Ben does his man duty to see who it is, only to realize that its his best friend Andrew(Joshua Leonard) who has recently returned from Mexico and in need of a place to crash while he is in town. After hanging out for a while Ben and Anna make him a place in the laundry room while they discuss how off the wall his showing up was.

The next day Anna decides to make a dinner for all of them in an attempt to get to know Andrew better. Ben gets a hold of him to find out his plans and Andrew invites him to come hang out at this girls house who he met at a coffee shop earlier that day. Not surprised by this Ben goes over to invite him back for the pork chop dinner that Anna is preparing, only to get caught up in the careless fun they are having.

After a few hours of drinking and debauchery, the group starts talking about the amateur porn festival Humpfest in Seattle which Andrew is going to enter a video into. When Ben inquires about it he is called out by his buddy that he wouldn’t be allowed to do something that risque and hints to the fact that he is whipped. Ben combats this by saying he could and would enter a video and they decide the most “artistic” video would be two straight guys having sex. Ben suggests that he and Andrew make said video to prove he is willing but Andrew wouldn’t be. Andrew then decides its a good idea and Ben calls to book the hotel room for the man love that will inevitably go down.

Without ruining the entire movie and spoil what is about to happen in the story I will stop there, an asshole thing to do right? Well not really, you need to go out and see this movie because I don’t do it justice I am certain. Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass are outstanding in this film and despite being almost entirely improved none of the scenes feel forced, some are awkward but never forced or unreal. This is the first thing I have ever seen Alycia Delmore in and cant wait to see him in more because she is delightful and really pulls off her role with ease.

Lynn Shelton has created an indie masterpiece and I hope that this movie becomes an extreme financial success because if anyone is more deserving it is her. I would also like to say that Magnolia Pictures has really impressed me with their recent acquisitions and I am very glad that they found a home for ‘Humpday’. Here are the dates that you can go out and see ‘Humpday’ near you.