The Raindance film festival kicked off midweek with an excellent character-driven indie flick, Humpday, which tells the story of two very different friends in a very weird situation.

Ben and Andrew have been friends for a very long time, but have been apart for even longer. While Ben was at home working on his career, getting his white picket fence and marrying his loving girlfriend, Andrew was traveling the world. But when Andrew comes banging on Ben’s door at 2am for a catch-up and a place to sleep they both begin to question the personas they have built themselves… and that others have labelled them with.

What you may or may not have guessed/known a is that this questioning ultimately results in the decision to make a gay porno with two straight men (Ben and Andrew) ‘banging on each other’s doors’ for local porn festival ‘Humpfest’.

What makes the film excellent is the way the characters are gradually exposed and developed to their fullest. When we’re introduced we, as an audience, automatically make the assumptions you’d expect about these guys. The up-tight, sensible one and the crazy, free-spirited but irresponsible one have each gone their ways and developed into these very different people. This isn’t just an assumption that’s linked to film archetypes (though it is undoubtedly enhanced by that) but is something we tend to do from day to day life. But the reality is far more complex, and they (just like I would be) are frustrated by one another’s assumptions.

When Andrew shuns a catch-up dinner with Ben and his wife Anna to go to a cool party with a girl he met at a coffee shop it all kicks off. Ben joins him and, though skeptical at first, ends up having a blast. It’s here that the idea of making a porno is floated in front of the group, and when Ben makes his drunken suggestion Andrew is dubious. Soon Ben is offended that he’s deemed too square for the challenge, and they agree that this WILL happen – and it’ll happen that weekend.

The ensuing back-and-forthing sees both characters plumb the depth of who they are, and an excellent performance from Alycia Delmore as Ben’s wife Anna adds to the broad spectrum on show here as they all go through the alternately painful and hilarious debate over whether, and why, these men would go through with it.

I won’t ruin the conclusion, but I will tell you that director (and supporting actress) Lynn Shelton shut the actors in a hotel room and let them work it out themselves: unscripted. It’s a superb act of realism that adds to the honesty and intimacy of the whole film, and leads to a satisfying conlusion… read into that what you will.