Humpday

United States

2009

94 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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CAST Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard

SOUND Vinny Smith

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), Edinburgh, São Paulo, Sundance (Dramatic): Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary (Open Eyes), SXSW (Spotlight Premieres)

Synopsis

It’s been a decade since Ben and Andrew 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. After a night of perfunctory carousing, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest. But what kind of boundary-breaking porn can two 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 an art project. But how will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna, Ben’s wife? —Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Director

Lynn Shelton

Lynn Shelton is an American director known for writing, directing, and producing the 2009 film Humpday.

Early life, and education

Shelton grew up in Seattle. She describes herself as having been audacious as a young girl, but having lost confidence in her creativity in adolescence.This experience contributed to a theme she explored in her 2005 film We Go Way Back.

After high school Shelton attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and then the University of Washington School of Drama. She then moved to New York and attended the Master’s of Fine Arts program in Photography and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her thesis advisor was Peggy Ahwesh.

She started working in the film industry as a film editor, and made a series of experimental short films which have been described as “accomplished” and providing the basis for the “subtle, almost anthropological scrutiny” brought to bear in her later works.

Among the jobs she has held to support… read more

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Daniel S.

16Oct12

**1/2. Why not. An interesting idea, a shaking camera, fve or six long dialogue scenes and an action sequence (the basketball one). As this latter scene is, according to me, the best moment of Humpday, I'm prone to believe that Mark Duplass is better at filming unsaid emotions or thoughts than at making you bear unending psychological mumbo jambo. A director to keep an eye on even if Humpday is already forgotten.

FailedImitator

15Sep11

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. As far as mumblecore-for-mature-audiences go, this is just a notch below THE FREEBIE, which I felt was like a B-side to this story.

Miasma

3Sep11

Enjoyed this movie heartily til the ending, which is an anticlimactic copout. It does work on a narrative level, but it's not satisfying. That WHOLE MOVIE we're waiting to be blown away. Why not blow us away?