Jan
13
Straight Men Go Gay-ish in “Humpday”
January 13, 2009 | 7 Comments
Given our recent shoutfests over the issue of gay-for-pay in queer porn, I thought this might be of interest to movie fans among our Constant Readers (also, there’s nothing going on in GayPornLand right now). Anyway, as I was thumbing through a Sundance Film Festival catalog I stumbled across the indie film Humpday, written and directed by Lynn Shelton; it screens at Sundance late next week and features Ms. Shelton with Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore and Trina Willard (you might recall Mr. Leonard, the bearded guy on the poster, from The Blair Witch Project). Essentially, two former Big Men on Campus reconnect after a decade of suburban ennui, fall back into old patterns of behavior, and enter an amateur porn contest where they dare themselves to have sex with each other. “It‚Äôs not gay; it‚Äôs beyond gay. It‚Äôs not porn; it‚Äôs an art project…a buddy movie gone wild” (CLICK HERE for their official website.) I like the idea of straight men challenging their boundaries, but at the same time, the use of sex between men to flip out straight guys is tired, tired, tired. We see it in commercials, videos, movies, film, et. al. I don’t want to judge Humpday until I have a chance to see it for myself, so that’s where we’ll leave it. But it’s interesting how these things bubble up in the zeitgeist. CLICK HERE to read the full Sundance synopsis…
It‚Äôs 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 from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up, unannounced, on Ben‚Äôs doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship. 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 ‚Äúbig talk‚Äù run out, only one idea remains ‚Äî they will have sex together…on camera. It‚Äôs not gay; it‚Äôs beyond gay. It‚Äôs not porn; it‚Äôs an art project. But how will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Anna, Ben‚Äôs wife
Judging by writer and director Lynn Shelton, it takes a talented woman to unearth the biggest ironies in the male ego. ‘Humpday’ is a buddy movie gone wild. Shelton expertly mines this clever construct for every possible comedic and irreverent moment. The three lead actors deliver fine-tuned performances amidst postmodern patter and tight, crisp storytelling. Shelton‚Äôs command of her craft shines brightest when our two gentlemen finally get down to the task at hand: creating a classic ‚Äúwriggle in your seat‚Äù moment of truth.
Official website: HumpdayIsHere.com
Comments
7 Comments so far
The idea of those two guys having sex is kinda flipping me out too. Think I’ll pass.
Interesting, could go either way. That a woman wrote and directed gives me some hope, I guess.
I’ll pay them to keep their clothes on.
Joshua Leonard is a good-looking guy. Too bad they decided to let him cover it up with that stupid beard.
http://blog.spout.com/2009/01/16/humpday-review-sundance-2009/
While this movie seemed to be the hit of Sundance, I sat there in the theater going, “who the hell is this movie for?”
Didn’t think it was that funny and the ending is kind of anti-climatic (ha ha).
[...] Back in January, I was thumbing through the catalog for this year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival and came across the description for Humpday from writer/director Lynn Shelton. It features Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard (remember him from The Blair Witch Project?) as “two former Big Men on Campus who reconnect after a decade of suburban ennui, fall back into old patterns of behavior, and enter an amateur porn contest where they dare themselves to have sex with each other.” It went over well at Sundance and was picked up for distribution by Magnolia Pictures, which has now set a release date for July 10. Pictured here is the newly spiffed up poster. The press materials insist their same-sex dare is “beyond gay… It’s not porn; it’s an art project.” On the one hand, I’m curious to see how an indie film (penned and directed by a woman) handles a couple of straight guys tackling the notion of a fluid sexual orientation. And yet…am I being peevish to just roll my eyes at the idea of yet another tale of straight male sexual panic? (And don’t get me started on the “it’s not porn, it’s an art project” fol-de-rol.) See also: * “Straight Men Go Gay-ish in ‘Humpday’“ [...]