Humpday

My Effortless Brilliance writer/director Lynn Shelton takes the topic of male bonding to new extremes with this comedy about two best friends who make an unusual pact that both may soon come to regret. Back in college, Andrew and Ben were inseparable. Years later, Andrew comes knocking on Ben’s door and discovers that his former roommate is all grown up — married and planning to have a baby. Meanwhile, Andrew never settled down at all, and has spent the past decade partying and traveling the world. Both men experience a mini existential crisis when they see what their own lives lack, and their dissatisfaction manifests itself in a strange way, when a drunken conversation about the upcoming amateur porn festival spirals into a contest of one-upmanship, with each guy daring the other to star together in a gay adult film. Two straight guys having sex together on film will surely be the hit of the festival — and besides, it isn’t a gay thing, just an artistic experiment! Strangely enough, even after sobering up the next day, neither Andrew nor Ben is willing to back down from their unique proposal. As the friends put their dignity, heterosexuality, and Ben’s marriage in jeopardy to pursue their strange project, underlying issues about growing up, being friends, and the fear of a passionless life begin to creep into the picture., Taboos are shattered when longtime friends Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) scheme to have sex on camera as part of an amateur-porn contest in this intriguing comedy. Andrew and Ben were bad boys back in college, but now Ben has been domesticated and Andrew is a bohemian artist. When talk at a party turns to the topic of an amateur-porn contest, the two friends enter into a mutual dare from which neither is willing to back down.