Lynn Shelton's mumblecore "bromance" Humpday never really interested me as I was reading about it at various festivals and when it got its theatrical run earlier this year. I've really only liked the Duplass Brothers' The Puffy Chair, as far as mumblecore goes, and the premise of two guys who macho dick swing themselves into fucking eachother on film sounded like it could only be incredibly forced.
Well, it's not. It's actually pretty wonderful. Ben and Andrew (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) have a totally believable relationship that would end up landing them both in a beige hotel room, trying to fuck.
They're old friends whose lives have gone in different directions, and when traveling artsy pretentious Ben shows up at domesticated Andrew's house, there is immediately some subtle tension between them. He becomes downright condescending to Andrew, who of course has to prove he's not some house pet, but is indeed still....masculine.
It's all about masculinity, and homoerotic tendencies. There are some sequences which hammer this in a little too obviously, but for the most part the film does it very successfully. And watching Ben being reduced to an idiotic neanderthal in the face of his wife is truly sad, but honest in its depiction of how males behave when their masculinity is tested.
And the though of having to one-up your straight best friend by saying you'll fuck him is rather funny.
All of my preconceptions of this film were way off, I'm loathe to admit. But I'm glad I forced myself to watch such a rewarding, honest film.
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