The one-line pitch to describe director Lynn Shelton‘s new film “Humpday” could very well drive away the people she hopes will see it – straight men.
The film, opening July 10, follows a pair of heterosexual buds (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) who, on a drunken dare, vow to have sex with each other on camera.
“It sounds like it’s going to be some broad Farrelly brothers farce, a goofy, raunchy ride,” Shelton told WWTW. “It’s not that. It’s pretty innocuous. There‘s very little nudity, it‘s not particularly offensive and the humor doesn‘t come from slapstick.”
While this weekend’s “Bruno” courts every ounce of controversy with its sordid material, “Humpday” tells a delicate story spun from an outrageous plot device.
Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) couldn’t be any more different. Ben is married and trying to start a family. Andrew never stays in one place for more than a few weeks. But the two get into a macho game of one-upmanship during a drunken party with bohemian pals, and that sparks the shocking plot.
The story is actually a conduit to other, less gratuitous themes, the director says.
“I’m fascinated and moved by folks trying to connect but having a hard time connecting,” she says.
Those ties can be strained when it involves straight men.
“There’s a built-in awkwardness when they love each other in platonic ways,” she says. “Women have an easier time expressing themselves and that love.”
Nothing in “Humpday” would work according to Shelton’s plan if the situations lacked believable characters.
“I involve the actors early on in the process,” she says. “I can’t really write the plot until I know who the characters are,” she says.
That doesn’t mean “Humpday” proved to be a stream-of-consciousness project.
“I knew what was gonna happen emotionally, what the point of every scene was and what had to take place,” she says.
But she didn’t know the answer to the film’s big question – will Ben and Andrew follow through on their dare?
“We wanted to keep what happens in the hotel room open ended,” she says of shooting that critical scene.
Tomorrow: Shelton tells WWTW about how the film festival circuit helped build her career and how “Humpday” demands good word of mouth to thrive.
(Photo: Director Lynn Shelton)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I just can’t quit you, Christian.
. . . follows a pair of heterosexual buds who, on a drunken dare, vow to have sex with each other on camera.
IOWs, one of the classic gay porn plots – drunken straights getting initiated into gay sex. Apparently without the, you know, actual sex part happening.
So what does this have to offer the straight male? It’s neither sexy or even educational.
From the interview, it doesn’t sound like it’s supposed to be either sexy or educational. The real question here is whether or not it will work as comedy.
I was really skeptical of this project when I heard about it. It sounded like one of those, ‘all men can be gay, it’s society that prevents them from acting on it’ memes, ignoring the hard truths about human behavior.
The film really proved to be quite different. It says more about men, how they interact, and their willingness to fight preconceived notions about their personalities than anything else.
The real question here is whether or not it will work as comedy.
Thanks alot. You’ve got me imagining Hope and Crosby starring in “The Road to the Hershey Highway”.
Still, get back to me when the film gets remade with two straight, hot looking women fighting preconceived notions about their personalities and decide to engage in gay sex on camera. Now that’s what I call art.
High art, K …