You have to give Lynn Shelton a lot of credit for trying to explore a part of the male lifestyle that often deliberately goes unspoken.
Humpday (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:96
Fresh:72
Rotten:24
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Observant and insightful, this indie comedy takes a different tack on the "bromance" but still makes a point without sermonizing.
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Comedies
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...
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?
Writer/director Lynn Shelton, director of My Effortless Brilliance and recipient of the "Someone to Watch Award" at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards, expertly mines the biggest ironies of the male ego to hilarious effect. Humpday is a buddy movie gone wild. --© Magnolia
Starring: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton
Starring: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard
Director: Lynn Shelton
Director: Lynn Shelton
Screenwriter: Lynn Shelton
Producer: Lynn Shelton
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Reviews for Humpday
It's also hilarious, which makes all that unspoken relationship drama a lot easier to explore.
Lynn Shelton’s marvelous chamber comedy Humpday butts up against the same sort of taboos as Brüno, and in its fumbling, semi-improvised way, it’s equally hilarious and even more subversive.
The problem is not the farfetched contrivance of Humpday, but how unmoored it seems from anything but self-satisfied cuteness.
With its easy-going pacing and consistently funny give-and-take, Humpday is more than just a one-joke movie. It's a perceptive comedy about masculinity.
The title suggests a titillating, frivolous film, but it's actually a serio comedy about socio-sexual taboos and the very nature of male friendship.
Alycia Delmore gives a nuanced performance as Anna, but it's the dumb-as-stumps performances from Duplass and Leonard that make "Humpday" a movie that you can laugh at as much as you laugh with it.
More sophisticated than a brief plot synopsis indicates, and it is one of the most observant and intelligent movies ever about male relationships.
It's funny and sweet and curious about the nature of dude friendship, although Shelton, like her characters, equivocates a little too much about the eventual outcome.
Humpday is like a peek into the brain of dudes and it’s either funny or discomforting depending on if you’re a guy or a girl. As a guy, I only prayed my wife wasn’t catching on.
Consistently funny, as well as genuinely insightful about the way men relate to one another.
Humpday uses it absurd premise for maximum comic discomfort and its this approach that should have audiences unable to look away unless they are doubled over in laughter.
Shelton’s ability to get terrific performances out of an unknown cast borders on the astonishing.
A whip-smart, uproariously funny comedy which uses a "bros will be bros" dare as the in point to talk about the inevitable loss of self in long term relationships.
Latest News for Humpday
July 09, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Bruno is Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got Austrian audacity (Bruno, starring Sacha Baron Cohen) and graduation gratification (I Love You, Beth Cooper, starring Hayden Panettiere and... More...
June 28, 2009:
Edinburgh 2009: RT's 10 Must-See Movies
The Edinburgh Film Festival has come to a close and Rotten Tomatoes thought we'd make a traditional look back over all of the films playing at this year's fest and present to... More...
June 28, 2009:
Edinburgh 2009: Humpday wins RT Award
Humpday, directed by Lynn Shelton, has become the second ever winner of the Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award, it was announced today at an awards ceremony in Edinburgh.... More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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