Tuesday, August 4, 2009

MIFF PART 1 - HUMPDAY

HUMPDAY

I got myself a mini-pass to MIFF (The Melbourne International Film Festival) and have decided to do some small reviews on each of the films I see.

First up is what I saw last Tuesday - HUMPDAY.

Written and directed by American Lynn Shelton, HUMPDAY is the story of two guys who've been friends since their days at University. Through a series of events that sound highly convoluted when I try and write them down, but somehow flow quite naturally in the film, they decide to have sex for an amateur porn festival, although they are both straight.

Sweet, charming, honest and hilariously funny, HUMPDAY fires on most cylinders, delivering a lovely film about homoerotic desires, friendship and the self. Shelton gets incredible performances from the entire cast, who seem to largely improvise their dialogue. Each character feels completely authentic and three-dimensional, and there exists great chemistry and excellent dynamics between them all.

The pace clips along briskly, which is good, because the one downfall of the film is its tendency to over-analyse itself, as, while interesting, much of what is said between the characters is obvious to the audience anyway, and while natural dialogue is all well and good, it's not necessarily interesting to watch. Luckily Shelton and cast manage to stay on the perfectly charming side of good for the bulk of the film.

A great way to start the festival!

And even though these systems are flawed, I'm going to allocate scores anyway, because I love a bit of illogical ranking.

7/10

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