Humpday was a surprise hit at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and also made waves at the Cannes Film Festival. Taking the genre of “Bromance” to an extreme, writer/director Lynn Shelton focuses on the relationship between two university buddies, Ben and Andrew, reunited a decade after their crazy student days. Ben has left the madness behind him, living a conventional life in suburban Seattle, married to Anna, and planning a family. When Andrew, his old friend, appears out of the blue in the middle of the night, Ben’s stable and uncomplicated life takes a bit of a detour. At a party with Andrew’s new bohemian friends, Ben feels the pressure to fit in, and suggests that the two of them, both heterosexual, enter an amateur pornography competition with themselves as the stars of the show. This boundary-breaking short, they decide, will be “beyond gay”. In the cold sober light of the next day, Ben is faced with a quandary: trying to get out of the sex-with-Andrew idea, and, once that is out of the question, of telling Anna that he plans to cheat on her with his best male friend.

While definitely part of that American indie subgenre called “Mumblecore”, known for its low-budget values and improvised dialogue, Shelton’s story is also an insightful exploration of masculinity today. Humpday is the kind of film that will generate discussion long after you have left the cinema, and is a humorous but poignant portrait of the challenges we all face in growing up, accepting responsibility, and letting go of a part of our youth.