Philosophically speaking, it grows on the right path.Practically, it deviates widely.Sometimes by taking shortcuts - for example, giving the wife the bar storyline with the sole purpose to progress the plot by providing him with a valid stepping stone towards going through with the video.Sometimes by taking the scenic route - aka, the loooooong, bendy talk that ultimately gets them to put their clothes back on.Still interesting in terms of studying the way we self-steer, thrusting options, making pointed arguments that are often detached from reality, solely because subconsciously we desperately want or don't want to do something, trying to convince the world by first convincing ourselves.Duplass is, as always, an effortless pleasure to watch; and that's about it regarding performances.Mediocre.

I love naturalistic films that combine human drama with comedy and pathos (think of Mike Leigh), and this film definitely starts off in that direction. I also enjoyed the basic premise and the way it unfolded. However, the dramatic potential of the story was not explored enough for my liking, especially in the wife's character half-heartedly played by Alycia Delmore. In addition, the ending of the film is satisfactory, but didn't really deliver on the build-up. There was a dropping off in emotional and narrative tension, which made me feel they hadn't gone all the way with the idea. Perhaps that's the underlying message - that these characters are out of touch with their fundamental feelings and living on the surface. Overall it's a highly entertaining comedy that explores male friendship in a very surprising way.

It's simplistic and inaccurate to say this is a movie about homophobia. The two guys are not homophobic in the least. If anything it's about peer pressure and machismo, albeit in an unconventional, post-feminist context. The movie's framework, two straight guys considering whether or not to have sex with each other for an Art/Porn movie, generates an absurd dialog. Does Art justify a willful, forced, deviation from the norm, or is a willful, forced, deviation from the norm automatically Art? The subtext is about moving out of your comfort zone, and your motivation for doing so. I went into this not knowing what to expect. As a gay man, I resisted it, finding the plot line forced. But as it went on, I bought into it. I think it was the two main actors who sold it, primarily. The premise sounds comic and coarse, but the storyline is actually subtle and gentle. Not easy to sell that kind of bait and switch.

Two close friends (Ben, played by Mark Duplass, and Andrew, played by Joshua Leonard) grapple with the following dilemma. Can two straight men engage in gay sex, film it, and hope to win a prize at The HUMP! annual film festival in Seattle, Washington? HUMPDAY is a sly and witty examination of sexual attitudes which, at times, is as disconcerting as it is nearly hilarious. Ben is married, and he and his wife are about to start a family, while Andrew is a Free Spirit who sees himself as kind of a marginal player on the international art scene. One night at a party in a Free Love commune, the two men drunkenly come up with a possible brand-new approach to the Genre of Pornography. Why not have two straight men do a gay porn flic. This becomes the odd and unsettling conundrum for the movie. Is it possible for two straight men to engage in gay sex, or would the act itself preclude that they were gay at the outset? The viewer watches as Ben and Andrew squirm with the unstated (and frightening) query, am I gay, or closer truth, just exactly how straight am I? Maybe the real message of the film is that as much as we feel that we have completely settled on our sexual identity, the true nature of sex might be much more fluid. Personal sexual attitudes are not really laws which are set in stone, but maybe they are just guidelines which are subject to change and reinvention as circumstances change. The film doesn't resolve the issue, but it certainly presents a dizzying collection of cringe inducing questions which highlight this quandary. HUMPDAY could be seen as a possible companion piece to the wonderfully disquieting film, CHUCK AND BUCK.