Word: ben
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...late-night stoned discussion of Seattle's annual HUMP! - a film festival for amateur pornographers - Andrew makes his "you, me and a camera" proposal. The film will be "beyond gay," and a likely festival winner, he thinks. But primarily, it's an insult to Ben, a gauntlet thrown down in the battle of the lifestyles, with the subtext, You're too square for this. (Andrew's main defense in life is that he's resolutely not square...
...only takes Andrew an afternoon to befriend a like-minded, co-op-dwelling bisexual (played by the multitasking Shelton), who invites him over for an evening of drugs, dancing and experimental thinking, if not actions. Andrew persuades Ben to drop by to meet his new friend. "It's a little weird," Ben tells Anna on the phone, promising he'll be home in time for dinner. "The place is called Dionysus, and they aren't kidding." Wanting to please both friend and wife, he's torn. In the end, the desire to be as hip as he believed himself...
...challenge becomes the fulcrum on which their future relationship hangs. As the movie shifts into a sort of precoital pillow talk between straight men, it's surprisingly suspenseful. Will they go ahead with it, and if so, what will it mean to them? What will it mean for Ben's marriage? Who gets to dominate? Ostensibly, Ben and Andrew's conversations are about sexual boundaries and the ways in which straight men, even enlightened ones, recoil at the thought of gay sex (male, that is), but they are just as much about the limits of adult friendships and the boxes...
...When someone gets married, some friend inevitably at least feels forsaken. Andrew is clearly saddened by the realization that he is no longer the person Ben connects to most easily. Ben cares too much about Andrew to want him to feel cast aside. Both are figuring out how hard it is, particularly for men, to make new friends in midlife. Each has other legitimate fears: Ben of feeling limited, even as he adores Anna, and Andrew of being a poseur (which he is, but Leonard makes us care for him). Anna has fears too. The truth is, the distance between...
...Anna is also intuitive enough to understand that there is an attraction between Ben and Andrew. Most likely, it's just about personality, but Shelton suggests at times that there might be something more to it. Ben and Andrew are like a pair of little boys, pummeling each other constantly to make contact. Watching them in an angry wrestling match after a competitive basketball game, you start to think that maybe they should make out, crazy as it seems. That's the power of this subversive movie; it challenges us as much as it challenges its own characters. Humpday makes...