Humpday

Lynn Shelton puts a stealth bomb under the bromantic comedy with her shrewd and funny extrapolation of the lengths some guys might go to to prove they're not boring. A decade ago, Andrew and Ben were inseparable Bohos on campus, their friendship sealed with a pact to live as vagabond artists. Fast-forward ten years and Andrew still believes he's a character in a Kerouac novel, whereas Ben is a nine-to-fiver, nesting with wife Anna in the Seattle suburbs. When Andrew shows up one night on Ben's doorstep, their old dynamic resumes. With taunts that he's gone soft, Andrew effortlessly hijacks Ben away to a debauched party, where the pair concocts a risqué entry to Seattle's annual Humpfest – the indie event where art meets porn. But what begins as a boozy challenge soon escalates into an insane game of carnal chicken. Shelton's hilarious, disarmingly naturalistic third feature fondly opens up the worm-can of every straight bloke's greatest fears. — BZ

Read The Lumiere Reader's recent review of Humpday here.