Thursday, November 19, 2009

Humpday DVD



DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Straight Guys Do Gay Porn in Homoerotic Comedy Coming to DVD

During their college days, Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) had a reputation on campus as party animals. But that was a decade ago and since then Ben has started a career, settled down and married, while slacker Andrew has remained as wild as ever and never really amount to anything. So, it’s no surprise that the two would have drifted apart and lost touch over the intervening years.
But then Ben and his wife (Alycia Delmore) get the shock of their lives one evening when Andrew shows up at their house unannounced, looking for a place to stay. Understanding Anna agrees to let her husband’s old pal crash at their place, and even encourages them to hang out.
However, Andrew takes Ben to an orgy being run by a lesbian named Monica (Lynn Shelton) where people are into very kinky stuff like a woman who’s letting a dog lick peanut butter off her. Ben knows not only that Anna is home cooking dinner but that they have an after-dinner date since she’s ovulating and they’ve been desperately trying to have a baby. This makes what he does next all the more bizarre.
For, under the influence and egged on by the rest of the degenerates to express their longtime love for each other, Ben and Andrew on a mutual dare decide to co-star in “Tender is the Butt,“ a gay porn flick, and to enter it into competition at the so-called Humpfest. And despite being straight, they kiss each other before making plans to rent a motel room to shoot what they refer to as a homoerotic art film.
Needless to say, Anna is furious when Ben stays out late, so he doesn’t let on that he’s about to cheat on her with another man. This is the wacky point of departure of Humpday, an offbeat farce directed by Lynn Shelton. Riveting, if not exactly realistic, the sitcom’s shocking subject-matter alone makes the picture strictly for the very open-minded.
Provides enough laughs along the way to make the raunchy ride worth it while waiting see whether Ben and Anna’s marriage can survive man-on-man infidelity once he and the truth come out. Gives ‘bosom buddies’ a whole new meaning!

Very Good (2.5 stars)
Rated R for graphic sexuality, pervasive profanity and a scene of drug use.
Running time: 94 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, commentary by the director and crew, a “Behind the Scenes” featurette and a commentary by co-stars Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard.

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