Humpday (2009) | dir. & wr. Lynn Shelton | 93 min | USA

Two straight men attempt to make gay art-porn to submit to an alt-weekly’s annual erotic film festival. Why was I not surprised to hear that this story takes place in Seattle, the alt-weekly in question is The Stranger, and the filmmaker, Lynn Shelton, is a local?

I finally caught Humpday (2009) on DVD after trying and failing to watch it at SXSW and SIFF earlier this year. Lynn Shelton was one of those names and faces I kept encountering, but somehow kept narrowly missing the opportunity to actually see her work. So I went in with a great deal of hype-awareness coupled with that satisfying feeling of seeing your humble little city get repped onscreen, even though most of the film takes place indoors. All those free-spirited hookah-smoking artsy white folk (who else would think of a straight-gay-art-porn idea?) reminded me of a few parties around town I somehow found myself in, and I can’t remember how. It looks and feels something like The Office, but without the interviews and occasional looks into the camera. The two main guys (Mark Duplass and Josh Leonard) resembled homo-erotic bizzaro versions of John Krasinski and Zach Galifanakis. And the awkward moments between them is the meat of the film. With occasional interactions with women who don’t understand them and have given up trying. The interactions are unforced, sincere, and sexuality–both straight and gay–rides shotgun with existing relationships rather than turning into a novelty that drives the story and shocks the viewer. Clocking in at 93 minutes, the film knows when to end before its charm expires.

Shelton was last years’ recipient of The Stranger’s Genius Award for Film. This year, it was our boy Zia Mohajerjasbi. Both get credited with bringing a more “authentic” Seattle to the screen, though their aesthetic approaches couldn’t be more different. Mohajerjasbi goes through great pains to stylize scenes most people would dismiss as mundane, of people who are marginalized. Shelton strips the artifice from people and places that might already look familiar, editing choppy and video image unfiltered. I read some critic describe Humpday as a “bromance” but without “Apatowian” features. I believe there is room to appreciate both approaches, as this city, small and slept-on as it is, is big enough to have many Seattles, each one deserving of its own treatment.