Opening Day: 5 November 2009

Synopsis:

It’s been a decade since Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife, and home. Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up unannounced on Ben’s doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of macho one-upmanship. Late into the night at a wild party, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest together. But what kind of boundary-breaking, envelope pushing porn can two straight dudes make? After the booze and “big talk” run out, only one idea remains—they will have sex together…on camera. It’s not gay; it’s beyond gay. It’s not porn; it’s art. But how exactly will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna (Delmore), Ben’s wife?

Movie Review:

The brouhaha in this bromance:

Two straight guys make a porn video in which they have sex with each other.

Does that sound interesting to you? If it does, Humpday is the movie for you.

On paper, this provocative novelty of a premise will raise an eyebrow or two. However, Humpday won’t take you to sleazy territory. In fact, it has almost no nudity (only a bum shot). It merely takes that queasy concept as a springboard to investigate the relationship between art and friendship (or in this case, 'bromance'). It is really a thinking man’s movie and not your average soft-porn shock-a-thon.

The movie asks this damning question among others:

Would you make a porn film of you and your same-sex friend to test the limits of your love for him/her?

This may sound quite ridiculous, hard to digest and particularly off-putting to the close-minded. But with the set-up, it is slightly more convincing.

The two best friends, Ben and Andrew, are pretty much bored with their lives. Ben, who seems happily married on the surface, feels suffocated by his duties as a husband. On the other hand, Andrew is aimless in life and yearns to do something meaningful with it.

Over a drunken stupor, they decide to make an art film (which is nobly speaking) disguised as a porn film for the Humpfest, an annual porn film festival competition. The porn actors would of course be themselves. Their dare takes an interesting turn when Andrew reveals their intentions to Anna, Ben’s wife. The revelation leads to a change in the outwardly loving couple’s dynamics. It sheds light on their hidden desires and shows that their relationship isn’t as simple as it looks from the onset.

For sheer audacity, Humpday gets the props from me. It raises many interesting questions about friendships, couple hood and the timeworn debate between art and porn. It also suggests that sexuality is fluid; some of us have probably fantasised having sex with someone of the same sex sometime in our lives. And it does so through examining the highly engaging relationships between Ben and Andrew and Anna, which get increasingly complicated through the proceedings.

Some critics have talked about the movie not adequately addressing all the questions that it raises, but I am more forgiving as Humpday is merely a narrative, capturing a slice of life. In a documentary format, these questions will have more screen time for in-depth investigation.

As with most independent features, Humpday is incredibly talky. But thankfully, there isn’t a boring moment as all the talk raises intriguing questions about relationships. It is also refreshing to see a movie that doesn’t have dialogue that sounds like it’s scripted. Like the best Dogme films, its characters talk like real people and the acting isn’t over-the-top. As a result, I actually connect with the characters.

The light bohemian air about the movie also makes it particularly appealing and forthcoming. Here, the characters hardly hold back and talk with no inhibitions. You feel like you are invited to a very private gathering where the innermost thoughts of people are revealed.

Humpday’s ending will disappoint most because they will not get what they came for and it doesn’t live up to the promising build-up. But I’m glad the movie doesn’t succumb to most wishes. It would have been cheap.

Anyway, it would be scary to see two hairy chubs getting on each other.

If there’s any take away, it’s that our sexualities can’t be transgressed easily. Nature wins at the end. And that’s the truth.

Movie Rating:



(Humpday is a must-watch if you love to wank off your brain)

Review by Adrian Sim