Humpday (2009)

Director:

Lynn Shelton

Writer:

Lynn Shelton (writer)

Release Date:

16 September 2009 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Sometimes male bonding can be taken a little too far.

Plot:

Two guys take their bromance to another level when they participate in an art film project.

Plot Keywords:

Male Male Relationship | One Word Title | Trying To Get Pregnant | Male Male Kiss | Gay Interest

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Mark Duplass	...	Ben
Joshua Leonard	...	Andrew
Alycia Delmore	...	Anna
Lynn Shelton	...	Monica
Trina Willard	...	Lily

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong sexual content, pervasive language and a scene of drug use.

Runtime:

Argentina:94 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | USA:94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45334) | New Zealand:R16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:18A (Alberta/Ontario) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:R21 | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): As Ben and Andrew explain to their video camera their story so far, Ben mistakenly refers to Andrew as "Ben".

Movie Connections:

References Pretty Woman (1990)

Funny movie with great acting and a ton of humanity

I just saw one of the premiere screenings of this film in Seattle, with director Lynn Shelton on hand afterward for Q & A. I found this a very funny movie with refreshingly real characters, and the rest of the large & enthusiastic audience at the screening seemed to agree. The director chose a highly unlikely scenario -- two straight guys setting out on a dare to film themselves having sex with each other -- and then handled it with total humanity and authenticity.

Watching the film I thought it was obvious that Shelton followed the same method that Larry David uses in *Curb Your Enthusiasm* -- i.e., she wrote out a detailed scenario and then had the actors improvise the individual scenes. The director confirmed this in the Q & A, adding that she developed the story in collaboration with the three principal actors and then shot the film over a period of 10 days in completely real-life settings. The actors had the freedom to do long takes, which were shot with two digital cameras to ensure coverage. The results were edited down to a well-paced 90-minute comedy.

In *Humpday* the fourth wall that they always talk about in theater completely disintegrates. I felt like I was right there in the same room with these people, whose "performances" were indistinguishable from reality. Shelton's directorial technique takes cinematic honesty to a new level, and I think we will be seeing more and more of her approach in the future.

"Mumblecore" is neither a fair nor accurate description of this movie. The dialogue is articulate and fully audible, and the portrayals are carefully thought through. Just as inaccurate is the media characterization of Shelton as the "female Apatow." Far from celebrating bromance, Shelton and her actors live it through and live it out.

Although deconstruction has come to seem an awfully dated concept, it still provides a fine description of what Shelton does to Apatow in *Humpday.* Having suffered through *Pineapple Express,* a chuckle-free exercise in self-indulgence, I gotta say that when it comes to producing laughs, Shelton now has the edge on the man who brought us the *40-Year-Old Virgin.*