Slashing The Seats

Finally arriving in cinemas after its Sundance premiere, HumpDay takes the old theory about homoeroticism in buddy movies to its logical extreme – and is partially successful.

When two college friends reunite after years apart, it doesn’t take much for the bohemian Andrew (Mark Duplass) to convince Ben (Josh Leonard) that the American dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and drag him along to a boozed up party where ‘creatives’ (or at least, their Hollywood avatars) smoke, drink and give pan-sexuality a try out.

During the course of the evening, the central odd couple decide to enter an amateur porn contest (as you do), Seattle’s real-life annual HumpDay, where contestants are asked to ‘take back’ porn from the silicone-implant brigade. The catch? They’re entering the Gay section.

As a comic premise, it does have mileage, with some engaging banter as the two alternately egg each other on or try to get each other to chicken out, while Ben’s exchanges with unsuspecting wife Anna (a standout Alycia Delmore) provide some of the few laugh-out loud lines in the movie. Unfortunately the mumble-core scripting and some uncomfortable gender stereotyping spoil things, with Lynn Shelton’s script trying too hard to satirise the modern American male sense of self, when a dumber and sillier approach may have worked better.

It’s not often that you find yourself arguing for a movie to be stupider, but while there are some funny lines, many jokes fall flat or are offensive as if the film itself is overcompensating.

It’s still successful in some ways, showing how the straight-laced Ben is still wild and kerazy at heart, while Andrew may not be the all out hippy he pretends to be, but it’s too little too late. Finding out that people behave differently in different situations is hardly groundbreaking, and once the focus is off the porn and onto the talk, it’s difficult to maintain any interest. While the notion of fluid sexuality and monogamy is given a once over, the film tends to rely overly on sitcom chatter rather than – excuse the pun – taking things deeper.

It could be a comment on male hang-ups, as the short scene with two bisexual women is far more incisive than the endless dialogue between the two leads, or it could be a case of a female writer unfairly relying on male stereotypes. When done right, the gender war can provide a poignant and very funny battleground, but any battle requires a sense of daring to win – and that’s sadly lacking here.

Gay for pay? No way.

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