Humpday is a 2009 American mumblecore comedy-drama film directed, produced, and written by Lynn Shelton and starring Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, and Alycia Delmore.
The plot line centers around a "mutual dare" that is introduced at a party, which involves the two main characters engaging in a pornographic film together.
[5] Humpday received positive critical reception and won the Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Independence at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, among other awards.
During a party, they find themselves locked in a "mutual dare" situation engaging to make a gay pornographic film, including anal sex, as an "art project" between two straight guys and submit it to the HUMP!
Ben finds himself lying to Anna; he talks about the project with only vague detail, telling her that he will likely act as a behind-the-scenes assistant to the hypothetical film crew.
The website's critical consensus states, "Observant and insightful, this indie comedy takes a different tack on the "bromance" but still makes a point without sermonizing.
[9] Reviewing the film for NPR, Bob Mondello wrote that though the setup may sound "preposterous", "if you bear with writer-director Lynn Shelton a bit, she takes her concept places that are a lot more resonant than you'd expect.
And she does it without shortchanging the laughs that flow from the fact that these guys are going to have male-intimacy troubles that go way beyond backslapping…The film ends up being about not just a really idiotic dare, but about the bounds of friendship and the bonds of marriage — and about how unsettling it can be to look at yourself in the cold light of maturity, and realize you're not who you thought you'd grow up to be.