Humpday 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: It kind of runs out of steam. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Lynn Shelton's marvelous chamber comedy Humpday butts up against the same sort of taboos as Bruno, and in its fumbling, semi-improvised way, it's equally hilarious and even more subversive. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Humpday surprises us from beginning to end. It's a fresh take on the familiar topic of friendship -- and a wise one. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Shelton shows great insight into the contradictory mind of the modern man. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: In scene after scene, Humpday carefully raises the stakes until it hits a finale loaded with humor, tenderness, and delicious ambiguity. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Humpday just wrings every uncomfortable laugh from its premise then shudders to a halt: cut, end credits. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Unlike a lot of institutional raunch in today's comedy, Humpday finds laughs out of what is rarely made explicit between buddies. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The scenes between husband and wife are spectacularly awkward and arresting, though the movie grows more dubious the nearer the guys get to their shooting session in a local hotel room. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Humpday succeeds by grounding its risque premise in the awkwardness and humor of real people trying their damnedest to communicate. A lot. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Getting to the showdown is a fine and funny journey. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Writer-director Lynn Shelton sweetly, mischievously tracks Ben and Andrew as they jaw, shoot hoops, roughhouse, and hug it out. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: This is an excruciating dramedy of schadenfruede for the anything-goes hipness of the last decade and a half which has devalued contentment as a cop out Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: With astute and subtle precision, [director] Shelton burrows deeply inside the psyches of her characters who do not want to admit that they've changed considerably since they last saw each other a decade before. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: The film ends up being about not just a really idiotic dare, but about the bounds of friendship and the bonds of marriage — and about much more besides. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: One of the best indie films of the year, Humpday is a lighter descendant of 'sex lies and videotape,' yet burrows just as deep into the male psyche and the human capacity for self-deceit. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Few kinds of art are more boring than the insistently transgressive, and few movies are more boring than Humpday. Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: It's interesting that Humpday, a movie as sneakily taboo-nudging and subversive in a lot of the same ways as Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, opens on the same weekend but with a lot less fuss. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: What's intriguing in this set-up is what the dare might teach the guys about the nature of sexuality. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: While at times the improvisational dialogue sounds like audio filler, the three leads are poignant and perceptive. Likewise Shelton's film, considerably more complex than those 'bros will be bros' comedies of male bonding. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Humpday is funny, yes, but also observant and thought-provoking. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Lynn Shelton's breakthrough bromance comedy is funny, sharp and true -- with no preachy sexual politics. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Humpday may not be the single best movie I've seen so far this year -- though it's certainly a contender for the title -- but it's without doubt the most surprising. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Writer/director Lynn Shelton's sexual sitcom is a lighthearted satire of machismo and insecurity where the laughs emerge from restless, uncomfortable silences. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Humpday is something surprising: a sharply observed slice of life, an entertaining example of the microbudget genre called mumblecore. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: Evolves so naturally it never feels outrageous. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [A] startlingly good comedy that makes Bruno seem barely daring. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Humpday makes you squirm and think, in the best possible way. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: What finally lifts 'Humpday' above macho junk like 'The Hangover' is its all-inclusive warmth: for all their adolescent self-delusion, Shelton truly loves these characters. And after 90 minutes, so will you. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: Hilariously perceptive. Read more

Jan Stuart, Washington Post: Humpday radiates with the sheen of a film that has been thought out within an inch of its witty and insightful life. Read more