Product Description

It's been a decade since Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard)
were college bad boys. Ben is living contently with a good job and a great wife, until his old buddy Andrew shows up on his doorstep late one night. Andrew, who lives as a vagabond artist, invites Ben out to a wild party. Excessive drinking
combined with the irrational need to oneup each other, leads to a mutual dare that locks them into entering an
amateur porn contest together.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12463 in DVD
• Brand: MAGNOLIA PICT HM ENT
• Released on: 2009-11-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Features

• HUMPDAY (DVD MOVIE)

Amazon.com
A bromantic comedy par excellence, Humpday pushes the concept of male bonding and male competition (so often intertwined) to its end point. Two old buddies, Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard), reunite after a few years' time. Mark is living the bourgeois life in Seattle, with a home, a wife (Alycia Delmore), and a responsible job. Andrew's just blown in from vagabonding around Mexico, and his bohemian cred is as thick as his beard. When the buds drunkenly vow to participate in a local amateur porn-movie contest with themselves as stars, the stage is set for a game of staredown: neither guy wants to be the first to blink and admit he isn't quite open-minded or free-swinging enough for the stunt. (One large roadblock: Ben needs to actually convey the information about the film project to his wife, a dilemma that leads to some of the movie's funniest scenes.) Director Lynn Shelton works in an improvisatory style, figuring out the dialogue with the actors and creating a loose, frowzy atmosphere within scenes. That sense of verisimilitude helps sell the whopper of a premise, but what's even more impressive is Shelton's laser-like sense of male insecurity and rivalry (also on view in her previous picture, My Effortless Brilliance). Duplass (from The Puffy Chair) and Leonard (a Blair Witch trekker) play this to the hilt, particularly in the gloriously uncomfortable climatic scene, when push, shall we say, is going to have to come to shove. Humpday was a Sundance breakout in 2009, coming out of nowhere (i.e., Seattle, Shelton's home base) and snagging a summer release. And why not? If the specific plot isn't exactly a universal experience, the movie's underlying anxieties certainly are. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Testing Masculinity
"Humpday"

Testing Masculinity

Amos Lassen

"Humpday" is one of those little movies that cause a big stir mainly because it was not expected to be as good as it is. Andrew appears suddenly on Ben's doorstep one night and the two old college friends pick up their friendship like it was when they were in school. Andrew invites Ben to a party as a commune which advocates sex positive and while there they hear of many plans to make erotic art films for the local amateur porn festival. Andrew decides he wants to be a part of it so he decides that he should have sex with Ben (on camera) but this is not gay sex--it is an artistic project. There are only three things standing in their way--the fact that they are heterosexuals, Ben's wife, Anna< and the mechanics of male/male sex. They convince themselves that this is to be an artistic film--two straight guys being themselves but having sex with each other.
Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) are two likeable characters and the tension between them is built up beautifully--in fact the whole premise is convincing. However there is a very slow slide downhill and that is so sad because otherwise the film is wonderful. Lynn Shelton directed admirably and I love the premise of two straight guys making a gay porn film. There is no real nudity but there are some rather crude jokes and because the guys are straight, the film is that much more outrageous. The film sounds like it might be a dirty adult comedy but it isn't--it is humorous as it is based on an unlikely situation as it puts straight masculinity to the test. The dialogue is excellent and the portrayals of the characters are quite good. The big scene of the film will have you laughing for a long time.

A Great Laff Fest!
I saw this film at Sundance and could not stop laughing. The audience loved it too. This is a hilarious film! Yes, sophmoric in humor but not everything needs to be smart comedy. Great chemistry between these two actors! You feel so sorry for them having to one up each other in these typically oh-so-male scenes. Well written and directed by female director Lynn Shelton.

Get over the hump
I never read synopses of films, a practice which truly paid off in this instance else I would have never taken the plunge (it was enough to get past the unappetizing cover photo). An intimate, closely observed and unfailingly performed blend of humor and seriousness this is a marvelous little slice of life film that very nearly transcends itself. It is a low-budget 'bromance' of a higher order: in not attempting anything grand--despite the rather ridiculous theme--it actually comes as close as any film I have seen in a long time at getting at some truths of the modern psyche. This director is absolutely one to watch.