Humpday Reviewed

So, you know, its the end of the year and everything and the internet is teeming with these "Best of..." lists (even more so this year than most due to the fact that it also the end of a decade). I kind of like these lists, mainly because I often have my impeccable taste in music/movies/shows/restaurants/whatever validated. After reading a few you start to see the same movie (or whatever the list is comprised of) pop up on several different site's lists. This year, one of those movies is Humpday, something I hadn't seen yet. Interest piqued by the title, I decided to check out what the movie was about. It's website claimed: "Late into the night at a wild party, two guys find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest together." Sounds promising, right?

The first thing I noticed when Humpday started was that it stars Mark Duplass, who I had just been introduced to on FX's The League. The League has been discussed a few times on this blog, but not since the last four or five episodes aired. I'll get back to Humpday in a second. Like almost all of FX''s programming, I thought The League was an original, well conceived show with a great premise. However, unfortunately the execution of that central idea/theme left a bit to be desired. The show's funniest characters (Ruxton, Dr. Dre, Taco, The Oracle) weren't used to the best of their potential and towards the last few episodes the story arc really came off the tracks. It felt like a big inside joke that the audience was only halfway in on. (What was the fucking deal with Shiva? Why was she so influential during the league members' formative years? Why did they name the trophy after her?) All that said, I would still definitely watch if they decide to make a second season.

Humpday is being billed as a comedy. Don't be fooled, friends, for that is an complete and utter miscategorization. This movie, while providing a few chuckles along the way, builds a level of edge-of-your-seat tension and what-the-fuck-is-about-to-happen suspense that puts Hitchcock to shame.

Basically, the movie is about two old college friends, who's lives had lead them along separate path's, reuniting...and then deciding to bone each other. Duplass plays Ben, an affable yuppie who has recently decided to try to have a baby with his loving wife Anna. One night the couple is awoken by the sound of his old buddy Andrew pounding on their front door. Ben hasn't seen Andrew in years and Anna has only met him once (at their wedding) and doesn't appear to recognize him (presumably because of the thick beard he is now sporting). Surprised, but happy to see him, Ben invites Andrew inside. Anna is a little freaked out, but she is a good sport and welcomes him with open arms, even offering to make her famous pork chops for the three of them. Ben asks him what he has been up to and where he has been and is informed that Andrew has been working on art projects with impoverished children in South America. He also tells them about a trip to Morocco during which he met a princess who bought him a hat, which he wears throughout the movie.

The next day, while Ben is at work, Andrew meets a group of fellow 'artists' who invite him to a party at their house/art studio, which they have named "Dionysus" or something to that effect. Andrew gladly accepts the invitation and extends one of his own to Ben to join the party when he gets off work. Reluctantly, Ben shows up at Dionysus, with the intention of only staying an hour. After a few drinks and a joint he starts to really have fun getting to know these hippie-art-freaks and catching up with Andrew. As everyone continues to party, the conversation eventually turns to an "art contest" hosted by a local movie theater called Humpfest for which contestants submit an amateur porn movie.

Someone (I think it was Ben, but I'm not sure), suggests an idea for a porno that would be sure to win first place in Humpfest: Ben and Andrew, two completely straight dudes, totally just nailing each other. Jackpot. Everyone agrees that it is a brilliant idea. They schedule the shoot for that Sunday.

The remainder of the movie is like a perverse version of the chicken scene from Rebel Without a Cause, except with cocks instead of cars. Neither man wants to back down or let the other off the hook. It is back and forth with the "will they or won't they go through with it" until the tension boils over into a you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it final hotel room scene that will absolutely make your skin crawl, gay or straight.

While I'm not sure this movie would make it on any of my lists for best movie of the year, it certainly sits atop my list of movies during which I uttered the phrase "what...the.........FUCK" the most times. In a year full of bromances, Humpday is the strangest.