DVD Roundup: Humpday

The bromance has emerged as it's own genre in the past five years or so, thanks to Judd Apatow and the increasing extension of male adolescence. Most of the humor in your average bromance centers on the narrow line between platonic male camaraderie and full-on cockgobbling. Wringing cheap laughs from gay panic isn't the noblest of comedic endeavors, but the best bromances play with the poignant vulnerability of two dudes who love each other but can't express it frankly. And then there's Lynn Shelton's Humpday, which takes the bromantic comedy to it's logical, and sexy, conclusion. Married career man Ben (Mark Duplass) reconnects with his bohemian artist college buddy Andrew (Josh Leonard) and during a drunken bull session, they basically dare each other into making an amateur porn movie together for a local film festival. The ensuing drama, as the two alternate between trying to find a face-saving way to back out and convincing themselves that their very souls depend on going through with it, is frequently hilarious and always diamond-sharp in its observance of male interaction. Specifically, the delicate balance between intimacy and competition that drives dudley friendships. Ben and Andrew certainly love each other, but their slow, terrifying march towards boner-on-butthole action is driven more by their need to prove themselves to each other. Ben wants Andrew to know that he hasn't become a joyless suburban square just because he's married and has a mortgage. Andrew wants to show Ben that his open-mindedness and artistic sensibility aren't just poses. It all comes together in a fantastically awkward topless show-down in a hotel room that's got to be one of the richest, funniest scenes of the year. All in all, it's sort of the endline for all bromances. It's hard to image any new bromance covering the topic with this combination of wit and insight.