Humpday…It’s beyond gay!

Gay porn doesn’t usually spark my interest (insert joke) but when I saw the trailer for the high concept 2009 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner for Spirit of Independence appropriately titled Humpday I have to admit, I got a little aroused. 

The thing that attracted me to this film initially was the honesty that seemed to be permeating into my bones as I watched the trailer. The same holds true for the actual movie; the first scene pulled me in and the story didn’t let up until the final frame. The premise of the story is a unique approach to the “buddy film”, and it’s no surprise to me that a female, Lynn Shelton (We go way back, 2006) who wrote and directed the movie, conceived it.

Humpday stars Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair, 2006) and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project, 1999) as two old friends who have lost touch while traveling down two very different paths. Ben (Duplass) is doing the married thing while Andrew (Leonard) is doing the vagabond artist thing. When Andrew stops into Ben’s small Seattle town for the weekend the two both take stock of what’s become of their lives.

During a drunken party with Andrew’s new Bohemian friends the discussion of an upcoming film festival presents itself; of course this isn’t your run-of-the-mill film fest. “Hump-Fest” is an amateur porn contest that anyone is eligible to enter. An innocent conversation turns into a pissing contest of sorts and the two decide to make a gay porn film with two totally straight dudes, themselves, which will become art while it reaches to be “beyond gay”. Brilliant? Maybe, maybe not.

Humpday is free from gimmicks even though the title may suggest otherwise. There is no porn, only minor nudity, and the jokes are much more circumstantial and personal as opposed to the manufactured variety. Shot in 10 days with a crew of only 12 and an almost totally improvised script this is what Independent filmmaking is all about.

My Vote: This is the most interesting 95 minutes I spent at the theatre in a long time.

(500) Days of Summer is almost as good as an actual 500 day summer.

I am going to apologize in advance here. I’ve been having my mind BLOWN by Paul Thomas Anderson for the past week and he is quickly becoming my new favorite director so everything else now seems inferior.

Lets get to it.

(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy with a little bit of a twist. Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has been in a slew of small and interesting movies including Brick and Mysterious skin and who will also be in the new G.I. Joe flick coming out August 7^th) is a lover of epic proportion. Growing up listening too closely to British pop rock with inexperienced ears, Tom believes whole-heartedly in true love, fate, and destiny. I feel for Tom. I am Tom. Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, who I have had a pretty sizable crush on since her performance in 2002’s Elf, is the exact opposite. Here lies the conflict. They meet, she’s wonderful, and he falls hopelessly in love while she remains unwilling to let go of her bitter beliefs about love. I know that girl. This movie had me at hello.

An appropriate tagline sums it up in a few words. This is not a love story. It is a story about love. Unconventional would sum it up in a word. I was tickled by the little vignettes sprinkled throughout this film, especially the nod to Fellini (or was it Bergman?)… either way, spot on. The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, and to be honest, it felt like a gimmick. I really didn’t feel like it added anything to the plot and was just put to use in order to give the feeling of disorientation, which was unnecessary. Critics will dispute this and I understand why this choice was made, I just feel it would have felt like a fuller, more complete film if it had been told following a linear story line.

While I will applaud the climax of the movie for being unconventional, I really felt like the dénouement was in opposition to what they were trying to accomplish in the first place and therefore took away from the overall experience. The opening 10 minutes and closing 10 minutes of a film are important, not as important as I used to think, but important none-the-less. I suspect, however, that this was something imposed by the studio, at least that will be my excuse to help me sleep tonight.

I will certainly revisit this film on DVD and maybe my sentiments will change but as of right now I feel like the director Marc Webb was on the verge of a brilliant movie that fell a little short. With that being said, falling just a little short of brilliant isn’t too bad a place to be.

My Vote: A touching Rom-Com that breaks the mold. Check it out. 

Kyle Retter - i hate movie reviews

Copy and paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM to view the trailer.

GOSSIP is iTunes single of the week!

I know it's not movie related but I had to put it out there. My roommate turned me onto the band GOSSIP and they are pretty great. I was searching iTunes today and lo-and-behold their song HEAVY CROSS is the "single of the week"....which means it's FREE Check it out!