Humpday: A Guest Perspective

From the writer of Adventures of a Grad Student in the Kitchen:

I recently went to see the film Humpday, directed by Lynn Shelton. As a Seattlite, I was surprised and pleased to discover that the director is Seattle based, and that the film is partly inspired by Hump!, Seattle's own amateur porn film festival, created by the local paper The Stranger. Humpday is a thought-provoking comedy that takes place in the present day and introduces us to two men who have been best friends since college.

Ben and Andrew are reunited ten years after their college graduation. During those ten years, Ben married, landed a good 9-5 job and bought a home, while Andrew chose to travel the world, look for adventure and live as a vagabond. After Andrew shows up in the dead of night on Ben's doorstep, the two friends find that their bond is as strong as ever. Despite this, after a night of carousing, they get into a one-upmanship debate that results in them entering Hump!, and promising to have sex with each other. The premise may seem absurd given that they are two heterosexual men, but the movie is so well written, guided and acted that the resulting dare is completely understandable.

Humpday is a very unique and masterful film that is guided by the expert hands of Shelton. She wrote a bare outline of the movie with an idea of a goal for each scene. The actors improvised their lines and worked toward the goal together. The result is an astoundingly real, crisp, and natural film. In fact, Shelton refrained from outlining the ending because she was so committed to having an honest story that remained true to the characters. No one, including the actors, knew how the film was going to end!

Humpday is a very funny and refreshing film that has wisdom and depth. Actors Mark Duplass (Ben), Joshua Leonard (Andrew) and Alycia Delmore (Anna, Ben's wife) deliver perfect, resonating and multi-dimensional performances. Their characters navigate through a complex but hilarious situation and, in the process, reveal parts of humanity with which many of us can identify. I really loved this movie and I recommend it to everyone.

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