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Last August, a little movie called "Baghead" surprised the hell out of me and ended up on my best of the year list. You can read my initial reactions to that film here.  Last night, I attended a special screening of "Humpday" featuring a Q&A session with the film's Director Lynn Shelton.  All in all, it turned out to be an exceptional evening.  When you watch a shoestring budget film like "Humpday" it's always somewhat invigorating (at least for filmmakers in the audience) to listen to the newly minted Director talk openly about the process of getting the film "here."

Still, when the film opens in limited release on July 24, 2009 I suspect that a sense of nominal commercial success will be present during each showtime of its run.  Why?  The film is just flat out funny.  It has the kind of nervous laughter in its DNA.  If you walk down the cinema corridors of a multiplex and hear a rise out of an audience from an auditorium, chances are it's not from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (even though that film cost more than the world to make). 

Already, some have mistaken "Humpday" as the "gay" comedy of the summer. It's anything but.  "Humpday," following the steps of "Baghead," is the latest arrival from America's mumblecore movement.  What was once just a quick and economical way of shooting films (indoors, at friend's apartments, using friend-actors onscreen, etc.) for artists, is starting to come into focus as a major genre.  And a good number of mumblecore films are pretty startling in their honesty.  Aside from "Baghead," "The Pleasure of Being Robbed"--another mumblecore entry--made a special mention place in my year in review of 2008.

"Humpday" stars Joshua Leonard ("The Blair Witch Project") as Andrew, a roaming hunger artist in search of--completion. Of anything. On a late Thursday night he surprises longtime college friend Ben (played by Mark Duplass, very good) by arriving at his new home, thus waking up Ben's more reserved wife Anna (Alycia Delmore).  From this outset, we can sense the potential fish out of water comedy: Andrew will disrupt Ben's normal and controlled life & probably embarass Ben in front of all of his sophisticated friends.  Laughs will roll.

But Writer/Director Shelton sidesteps those predictable plot developments and instead expands on a drunk conversation that Ben and Andrew share on the following Friday night about pornography and the potential of the genre regaining its artistic flair and status.  Of course, when two grown straight men start talking about sex and are intoxicated, a pissing contest is unavoidable.  Eventually some words are slipped, and by morning the two awake to a pact they promised each other to carry out on the coming Sunday: to get a hotel room and make an "art" film (for an upcoming porn film festival) about two straight men showing their love for each other by fucking. Each other.

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In March I wrote about Soderbergh and the bottom line is--I admire the guy. Greatly.  Peter Travers of Rolling Stone made the point of saying that Soderbergh really made fluff features like "Erin Brockovich" & the "Ocean's 11" trilogy strictly to have the finances and permission to make smaller, independent and more personal films like "The Good German."  It's a process I believe that is liberating.  Just last week I was fortunate enough to sit down and watch his latest indie project: "The Girlfriend Experience" starring porn star Sasha Grey.  Not a bad feat when considering the whopping masterpiece Soderbergh Directed earlier this year: "Che."  Yet, 2006 was a strange year for "The Good German."  It didn't bode well with too many critics and audiences.  It had a dicey Christmas release date and premiered around the same time as Robert DeNiro's similarly titled "The Good Shepard."  To this day, every time I mention "The Good German" someone immediately responds "Oh, that movie was too long & Angelina Jolie is barely in it."  Two things: 1) "German" is less than 2 hours (and is also in black and white!)  & 2)  Jolie is in "The Good Shepard"--not "German."

But now I'm veering off.  Back to Soderbergh's "German": Using solely the camera, sound & lighting equipment available during the heyday of B/W movies (1940s/1950s) Soderbergh purposefully limits himself aesthetically. Without the use of camera zooming (everything is in focus!) or having lava mics (thus just using a boom mic), what "The Good German" becomes is both a throwback to great cinema as well as a return to the old fashioned form of actually Directing.  Static shots often test the limits of direction.  There is no hiding from it.  You can't pull a Michael Bay and manic edit your way out a scene.  As an audience member you notice every shadow, figure, and performance. 

So what's the movie about?  Well the title does not refer to any of its marquee stars. George Clooney plays Jake Geismer, Tobey Maguire plays Tully (more on him in a bit) and the versatile Cate Blanchett plays Lena Brandt.  It's the end stages of the second World War and Berlin is the location for what looks to be a "Casablanca" marginal love triangle between our three leads.  The so called 'good' German character we don't meet until the third act.  Of course, as with any film that touches on noir (this film in particularly is up to its knees in it), nothing is what it seems and as the story unfolds we see character motivations that fuel the story--not the other way around.  Nowadays, writers treat story as a gimmick, a big "Gotcha!" punchline.  In today's films, there is the hostage situation in a hotel or a TV gameshow that plots the points along the way.  It's what we're used to. So if by the end scene of "The Good German," you feel the like the air has been let out, it isn't mistaken.  Here we have a universe chartered by morals, loyalties and hell, even romance.  The climax happens a good 15 minutes before the roll of end credits.  Dénouement was once an academic term you know.

On a final note, I must say that this is Tobey Maguire's film.  I don't know how awards and critics group passed him up on a Best Supporting Actor nod.  Though he has less than half of the screen time of both Clooney and Blanchett, his presence rings throughout the film as much as that of Jude Law's in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or Rachel Weisz's in "The Constant Gardener."  Some have complained that Maguire's bad soldier boy performance is over the top & campy, but it is exactly what the material calls for.  Soderbergh isn't making "The Crying Game" with his "The Good German," but is lifting the veil of the American cynicism hiding in those classic B/W films.  Maguire is the wretched embodiment of the American dominant male that was muted in every Bogart picture.  I mean he has the balls to call Clooney a "stupid fuck" after beating him senseless outside of a Berlin bar.  You don't need a lava mic for that.

Watch the trailer for Soderbergh's missed gem here.

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