HUMPDAY
Written, Produced & Directed by Lynn Shelton
Released by Magnolia Pictures
USA. 95 min. Rated R
With Mark Duplass, Alycia Delmore, Joshua Leonard, Lynn Shelton & Trina Willard
 

Humpday has the year’s most attention-getting high concept: two straight, longtime friends—free-spirited and single Andrew and button-down and married Ben—accept a challenge, after a long night of one-upmanship, to have sex on camera—with each other. Once the dare has been made, the film builds to the most obvious question (sidestepping any spoilers)—can director Lynn Shelton sustain enough interest building up to the will-they-or-won’t-they resolution? Yes, thanks single-handedly to the cast. Shelton wrote the outline, but left it to the actors to fill in the blanks. If the film sheds light on male bravado and insecurity, it’s because of the unfeigned honesty of actors Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard. Their stamina sustains the film.

According to Shelton, the dialogue was 100% improvised. She had no idea if someone’s cherry would be popped; the resolution was completely in the actors’ hands. Their loose exchanges take a life of their own so that the preconceived premise comes across as spontaneous. Both Andrew and Ben talk circles around the other in justifying the challenge, and for a moment, they convince themselves that the project will be an erotic art film. Mark Duplass’s Ben sums up why they may have something to prove: “You’re not as Kerouac as you think, and I’m not so white picket fence.”

If the film was scripted, it would feel overwritten. But the danger of improvisation remains—that in any given scene, it only takes one actor to occasionally stall the momentum, or to dilute the tension by overexplaining. As if she were afraid of getting in the actors’ way, Shelton’s hands-off touch contrasts to that of provocateur Catherine Breillat (Anatomy of Hell), who believes actors should be manipulated pawns. One can only imagine what Breillat would have demanded from the cast (an NC-17 rating would probably have been too mild).

Part of the film’s charm is that these two dudes are slightly pudgy Everymen. Duplass is a veteran of a slew of films slapped with the mumblecore label. This film is all about talk, yet, unlike so much that falls under that moniker, Humpday is plot driven. Even at their most confused, the characters are articulate (minus the repetitive gap-filling expletives). But the best laughs come from the befuddled reaction shots, especially from Alycia Delmore as Ben’s wife. Underneath all of the rude, rowdy bluster, Humpday is more tender than tawdry, good-natured rather than judgmental. No matter how much the friends compete, whether in put downs or basketball, the actors never tip the balance toward rancor or anger. Kent Turner
July 10, 2009