Delightful Humpday Hits the G-Spot
Seattleites Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) are best friends who haven’t seen one another in ages, so when the latter arrives on his married compatriot’s doorstep looking for a place to stay the chances he’s going to be sent away are pretty much nonexistent. Soon the two are carousing and making hay just like they did in college, engaging in a prodding brinkmanship showcasing both their close friendship and their unabashed competitiveness.
Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard in Magnolia Films' Humpday
But Ben’s wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) isn’t so sure about the pair’s latest bet. They’ve decided to create a piece of art and enter it into a local newspaper’s annual film festival. Sounds good, save for the fact the event is called HumpFest and they want to make a porno with the two of them as the stars – the only stars.
As to what happens from there and as to how it affects Ben and Anna’s marriage I simply will not say, just rest assured that finding out the answers to those questions and more are exactly what gives the great new comedy Humpday its effervescent kick. While a bit slow to start, writer and director Lynn Shelton’s winning effort is a serious shot in the comedic arm, the film offering up a seemingly never-ending barrel of laughs I didn’t want to see come to an end.
This movie has grown on me since I first saw it back at the start of the most recent Seattle International Film Festival. While I certainly liked what I saw, certain aspects of the first third or so left me cold enough I sort of questioned just how much I really liked the majority of it. This is one of those Kevin Smith-style comedies featuring one heck of a lot of talk. Problem is, I just wasn’t digging it, the scenes setting up the major plotlines leaving me more or less cold.
It is amazing how one scene can change your entire opinion of a motion picture. There is a pleasant late night dinner table conversation starts with Andrew and Anna and then blossoms into a full-blown argument between her and Ben that is as wondrous as any single moment I’ve seen this year. Like a benign little giggle, the sequence begins almost as a lark, a brief if engaging aside that looks as if its only purpose is to get the viewer to smile in appreciative affection.
But it builds from there into something completely unexpected, twisting and turning with a gut-wrenching forcefulness taking me by complete surprise. Delmore owns this scene, her transformation from perky good-natured housewife to a ball of twisted, heartbreakingly confused fury spectacular in both its believability and apparent effortlessness. It gives the movie meaning and nuance it didn’t have before, the whole sequence the connective tissue which allows the third act to soar.
And does it ever do just that. Both Duplass and Leonard grab Shelton’s screenplay by the horns and let things rip in stupendous fashion from that point on, the laughter only stopping to let in pieces of perceptive insight that really hit home. This is the type of comedy that is as funny as it is thought provoking, its depth of understanding into the human condition, the bonds of friendship, the fuzzy chaos of a person’s sexuality and the seductive allure of lifelong relationships ones I think everyone everywhere can relate to.
I find it interesting that both this and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno are hitting theaters the same day. For me, this is by far the more satisfying experience. Where both films brazenly push boundaries and deal with concepts of human sexuality, gender and orientation, this one does it with far more wit and style. It also doesn’t force feed its opinions or themes down a viewer’s throat, its ultimate destination reached with a subtlety and an intelligence its fellow comedy unfortunately lacks.
There has been talk lately that the “Bro-mance,” relationship comedies following the rom-com template but revolving around two men like Role Models or I Love You, Man, is Hollywood’s latest thing. If that is the case, then Humpday is the pinnacle to which all others in this particular genre must aspire. With a fraction of the budget, starring three actors most have never heard of and made by a filmmaker whose prior works (My Effortless Brilliance, We Go Way Back) aren’t exactly well known, this is the type of film that can’t help but make me smile in jovial glee. It’s that good, and like what I imagine great sex to be this is one cinematic partner I can’t wait to brush up against again.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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