From the Ledge

I was having lunch recently with a friend who I consider to be fairly sophisticated and open-minded, when, during the course of conversation regarding sexual and gender identity, she categorically, flatly stated that she didn’t believe that there was such a thing as bisexuality – that men who claim to be bisexual were really closeted gay men.  I was a little taken aback, and of course, I vigorously disagreed, since based on my experience as a gay man with complicated relationships with both gay and straight people, I’ve come to believe pretty strongly that sexual identity is not as simple, as easily labeled into defined quadrants, as many people seem to, or want to, believe it is.  I’m very convinced that sexual identity shifts and moves along a continuum, settling at some steady state during a particular period of time, which may or may not be permanent.  In our contemporary times, sexual fluidity seems to be more pronounced and embraced that it was even as recently as ten years ago.  But American film is light years away from reality most of the time, so no Hollywood movie has so far touched this topic with a ten foot pole (except for the bromance comedies such as I Love You, Man, which dilutes the provocation by making fun of it).  That is why Lynn Shelton’s low-budget independent movie Humpday, winner of a Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and official Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight selection, about two straight male friends who, on a drunken dare, agree to make a home movie of the two of them having sex, is so current, so fresh, so insightful, so riveting; it’s possibly the best film I’ve seen so far in the half year.

Ben (Mark Duplass) and Andrew (Joshua Leonard) are close college pals who have taken divergent paths in life – Ben’s settled down in Seattle as a transportation planner for the city, with a loving wife, Anna (Alycia Delmore) who’s trying to get pregnant, a house, a life of “white picket fences”, while Andrew, who fancies himself to be a post-modern Jack Kerouac, has wandered the world, collecting unique experiences and relationships, without having any real accomplishments.  Andrew shows up at Ben’s and Anna’s house one weekend, and ropes his old pal into his life of free spirits and free thinkers for a night, enough for Ben to question his life choices.  I’ll stop with the summary there, because Humpday is a movie to be seen, so compellingly written, and so interestingly characterized (and the fact that the dialogue was semi-improvised by the actors makes it even more impressive).  I think the movie very incisively asks the question what is the true definition of male heterosexuality, and can it even be defined?  Can straight men have deep, complicated, inarticulatable feelings for other straight men?  Can you have sex with another guy and not consider yourself gay?  Does every guy, whether he’s conscious of it or not, have a “gay side”, and shouldn’t it be OK? Who makes the final call on your sexual identity- you, your family and friends, society?  I think some reviewers have missed the point when they say that the main crux of the matter is not the possible gender ambiguity of the main characters but the question about whether you can you have sexual relations with someone you don’t feel attracted to.  I do think Ben and Andrew, at some level, and maybe buried deep down in their subconscious, have homoerotic feelings for each other (Joshua Leonard, for one, is able to very intricately and subtly communicate Andrew’s deep affection for his friend with just a look or a hand gesture), so making the porn movie not only complicates their respective views of themselves but also their view of their relationship, and is probably, ultimately, the one barrier they can’t hurdle.  Can male affection, the “buddy system”, have a sexual side to it?  I think it’s a theme that Shelton wants us to ponder.

Duplass and Leonard have a wonderful chemistry together and are totally natural and believable.  The scene when they’re stripped down to their boxers hugging, pretending that they’re buddies who are greeting each other at the public swimming pool, is honestly and perfectly performed, balancing awkwardness, familiarity, and genuine feeling.  The best performance in the movie though belongs to Delmore, who makes Anna absolutely relatable in her bafflement, in her anger, in her strength of character.  When Anna tells Ben that he has to go through with the filming because she doesn’t want to live with him if this “thing” continues to fester inside him, Delmore is both fiery and heartbreaking. 

I wanted a little bit more closure at the movie’s ending, and I felt that Shelton didn’t really find the appropriate way to end the film in a satisfactory manner.  I think to some degree, though, the movie’s ending gives a little bit more open-ended, ambiguous flavor to the future of Ben and Andrew’s relationship, which probably in the longer view, provides the complicated topic of male relationships the justice it deserves.

Tags: Humpday