Humpday (2009)

good film but with many flaws

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Humpday is supposedly about two straight guys agreeing to have sex with each other. Well, yes and no. Let me start by saying what this movie is not about, since both the title and the poster are completely misleading. Humpday is not a comedy - at least not a comedy in the Judd Apatow sense. There are some hilarious scenes though. Humpday is not about homophobia - everyone in the film seems to be accepting homosexuality as one more way to express your sexuality, nothing more, nothing less. Even when the wife of one of the main characters is informed of his intention to have sex with his best buddy, not once does she call him anything derogatory. She may be upset, but doesn't even wonder if he's gay at all.So what is Humpday about?It's about being 30+, settled down, conformed with society's norms and accepting the restrictions set within a heteronormal relationship or marriage. Or about being 30+ and living life like there's no tomorrow, enjoying yourself to the fullest, but also having that annoying little voice inside your head reminding you you're irresponsible and incapable of long-term commitment. These two worlds clash in the movie. When, half-jokingly, the two friends challenge each other to film themselves having sex for the sake of art, each of them has different lines to cross - apart from the obvious one, and apparently the one that matters the least: that they're straight. Ben feels the need to step outside his comfort zone and explore his "other sides", not necessarily sexually. When the chance comes to meet new people, smoke some pot and relax away from his wife, he grabs it like a man in the desert finding water. Andrew sees the challenge to hump his buddy as a chance to finally see a project to an end and prove to himself he's capable of doing something bigger than him. At the end, it doesn't matter that they're both male, though. It could have been any woman they're not attracted to instead. The fact that they're best friends is their biggest obstacle, as it becomes more obvious in the final scene. The plot is clever enough to keep the viewers interested with its "will they or won't they" premise, steering away from many clichés you'd expect to see in such a movie. The dialogue is extremely well-written and takes the viewer away from the fact that he's watching an ultra-low budget, dialogue-driven film. The acting is amazingly good as well, so much it feels like there was no script in the first place - that's how naturally the lines are delivered. Little does it matter whether Ben and Andrew do each other in the rear in the end. The movie gives you enough food for thought for a good while after the credits have rolled. These are characters that will stay in your head for a long time.

As so many here have said, the film started great and promising but disappointed in the end.What can we learn from it?a) that the fear of homosexuality is engraved deeper in even most 'open-minded' men than they would expect b) that 'art' - if we expect the social role of art to be overcoming boundaries and to leave traditional ways of thinking behind - requires serious dedication, it doesn't always come easy.But in both ways, the movie just illustrated the well-known facts, but didn't give us any new ideas, leave alone new ways of how to deal with them any better than Charlie Average would do. These embarrassing (for the viewer!), guilt-ridden conversations between Ben and his wife, the hysterical and annoying laughter of Andrew (or more of Joshua actually? ;-)) and the kamikaze-like ending of the movie just let me want I had saved my time for better things than to raise hopes I might take anything valuable with me from this movie.

Oh great. A movie where NOTHING happens at all. Brilliant. This indie drama should have been canned, seriously. There's nothing about this movie that is redeemable except for the premise, which is almost deep enough to get a web series going but not a movie.I'm not going to go through the synopsis, but the story is weak, childish, and really makes you question these characters' sanities. Why is the husband that interested in doing this porn film with his friend? It's not like we know his character to be big into art or anything, so how would he know what good art is or isn't? And his friend is basically Owen Wilson's character in Zoolander, who is a pretentious bearded hipster who, in reality, wouldn't go through with anything this bizarre. It all doesn't make sense.Don't bother with it. Even for the indie movie scene, this movie is crap. There are some funny moments in the last 20 minutes of the film, but it goes nowhere and ends dry.

Humpday was a downhill slide.It's a movie that's just about entirely conversation, and it began refreshing, with two seemingly open-minded straight men discussing doing a porn together as an art piece. As the movie progressed however, the characters devolved into two straight "dudes" playing chicken as to who's gonna back out of their project first.And here's a big SPOILER.Nothing happens. They don't do it. The movie ends. Honestly, after all the build- up, even if this denouement is more realistic, you'd think there'll be some kind of a payoff. Maybe you'd enjoy this movie for its witty banter, but I was a little cranky by its end because it was filmed with a hand-held cam. JezuzXrist, movies need to come with motion sickness advisory warnings.