CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 7/17/09

Stuck on the Hump

By peter clines

Humpday

Lynn Shelton (also directed)

When bohemian, wannabe artist, and former college drinking buddy Andrew (Joshua Leonard) shows up on Ben and Anna's (Mark Duplass and Alycia Delmore) doorstep, it causes a few small problems. The big one is that Ben decides to prove he hasn't become a square by joining with Andrew in creating an entry for an amateur porn "art festival." Very literally…joining with him. As I've brought up once or twice before, the great Alfred Hitchcock noted that drama is real life with all the boring parts cut out. Alas, over the past few years a school of thought has apparently risen in film school and indie circles that says those moments need to be put back in, which is what's happened here. Humpday is one of those indie films that gives indies a bad name. Almost every dialogue exchange (all of which were ad-libbed) could be tightened and every scene cut down. It's not that there's awful stuff here, but so many scenes linger on and on and on, taking three or four minutes to tell 90 seconds of information, that the film burns through all good will less than 15 minutes in. The overriding question isn't, "Will they go through with it?" but an impatient "Will they ever get to it?" It's unfortunate, because by the time the story finally does get to Ben and Andrew's film debut, which is some of the better material, you're just wishing it would end.

Humpday
Magnolia Pictures
Rated R; 94 min.

Peter Clines grew up in the Stephen King fallout zone of Maine and made his first writing sale at age 17 to a local newspaper. He currently lives somewhere in southern California, and can often be found ranting on his cleverly named blog, Writer on Writing. His first novel, Ex-Heroes, will be released in fall 2009.



Humpday courtesy Magnolia Pictures

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