Humpday: I Love You, Man.

Premise: Ben (The League's Mark Duplass), who's settling down predictably into adulthood, is visited late one night by his old college friend Andrew (Joshua Leonard), who fits all the stereotypes of a free-living adventurous hippie. Andrew moves in temporarily (to the chagrin of Ben's wife) and soon makes a whole bunch of new hippie friends in the neighborhood. One night he and Ben attend a hippie party and learn about an amateur porn festival called "Humpfest". Ben, drunk from alcohol and bonhomie, suggests that the most daring entry in the competition would be a movie where two completely heterosexual men have sex together on film. Andrew immediately endorses the idea, and Ben steps it up by suggesting that they do it together. It starts out as a jest under the influence, destined to be called off the morning after, but soon escalates into an all-out game of sexual chicken: Will either of them relent before the humping becomes reality?

Why see it? Because it's an excellent dramedy about friendship, commitment, sexuality, getting older, and knowing oneself. You might not believe something like this could actually happen, but the character development and dialogue is so thorough that it seems a very natural result of the two friends' relationship: Andrew suggests Ben is too straight-laced to do something so radical, especially since he's married and settled down. His condescension grates on Ben, who wants to prove that he's not just a fuddy-duddy suburbanite. Ben comes back at Andrew saying that he's serious about producing this "art" and that he'll give Andrew an out if he doesn't think he can do it, but not because Ben's afraid. It's literally two men daring each other to screw each other -- the irony of a homosexual act driven by hetero, macho one-upsmanship. Or is it? The film does an excellent job of keeping us guessing on many counts, including whether there is actually something deeper going on here. Of course, the big question (and the big tension) is: Will they actually go through with it? And if so, how?

Any flaws? I guess one could argue that it might be a bit too stagy -- it is an independent film that was probably made on a tiny budget, and it is essentially a character study, so not much is really required as far as sets or action -- it's a talker. So if you don't want to listen to two guys going through the pros and cons of having sex with each other, you might not like it.

Recommendation: Rounded characters delivering enlightening and comical dialogue about serious subjects. A winner.