Film

Humpday

A deceptively intimate comedy about marriage, male friendship, and the gap between fantasy and consequence. Two straight men, reunited after years apart, drunkenly agree to make an explicit film together. What sounds like a lark becomes a genuine reckoning with desire, fidelity, and what we're really asking when we ask our oldest friends to follow us into the dark.

TMDb rating2.7

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Wet Hot American Summer2001

A loose, improvised ensemble comedy about adults behaving badly that understands how friendship can weather almost anything. Both films use that particular humor that comes from characters being genuinely fond of each other even when they're making terrible decisions.

But It's shapeless and deliberately silly in a way that won't land if you need a traditional narrative spine. Some of the comedy hasn't aged well.

Wet Hot American Summer poster

The Long Goodbye1973

Altman's masterpiece about masculinity and friendship tested by time and circumstance. Like Humpday, it's more interested in the texture of connection—what men actually do when they're together—than in plot mechanics.

But It's deliberately slow and oblique. Dialogue overlaps, scenes meander. If you want clarity and forward momentum, you'll find it frustrating.

The Long Goodbye poster

Chungking Express1994

Wong Kar-wai's film captures that disorienting feeling of unexpected connection and the way desire can derail what you thought your life was. The emotional honesty beneath the style is remarkable.

But It's visually dazzling in a way that can feel precious. The plot is deliberately slight, almost nonexistent. If you need narrative to hold your attention, move on.

Chungking Express poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Wild Tales2014

Both films understand that the line between a regular Tuesday and a day that changes everything is gossamer-thin, and that the funniest moments often come when people are realizing they've just crossed it.

Damien Szifron's six-part anthology about small eruptions of chaos in ordered lives. Like Humpday, each story follows ordinary people past the point of no return, finding dark comedy in consequence and loss of control.

But It's Argentine, subtitled, and tonally uneven—each story is a different temperature. One involves a plane crash. It can feel like six short films rather than one cohesive vision.

Wild Tales poster
More like this (7)

Louie2010

Louis C.K.'s series has that same willingness to sit with male discomfort and moral failure without either excusing it or turning it into a joke. It finds the real stakes in situations that start as comedy.

But Some episodes are very dark. The tone shifts wildly—sometimes within a single episode. It can feel unfocused or depressing if you're looking for consistent laughs.

Louie poster

Frances Ha2013

Noah Baumbach's film about friendship and drift, shot in black and white, with a similar indie sensibility. It shares Humpday's interest in how people genuinely love each other and still hurt each other.

But It's deliberately understated and sometimes mannered. The protagonist can be exasperating. If you want big emotional moments or clear resolutions, you'll leave disappointed.

Frances Ha poster

Sideways2004

A character-driven comedy about male friendship in middle age, with all the awkwardness and genuine affection that entails. It understands that funny and sad often live in the same moment.

But Miles is deliberately unlikeable and his narration can feel self-pitying. The pacing is leisurely, which will feel draggy if you're in the mood for something snappier.

Sideways poster

You're the Worst2014

A romantic comedy that understands that people in love can be selfish, cruel, and still deserve each other. It has Humpday's refusal to let anyone off the hook while still finding them funny and human.

But It's cynical about relationships in a way that can feel exhausting. Some episodes are genuinely mean-spirited. The show gets darker as it goes.

You're the Worst poster

Mistress America2015

Noah Baumbach again, this time about ambition and disappointment in female friendship. It has that same scrappy energy and willingness to let things feel unresolved.

But It's deliberately ramshackle. The dialogue moves fast and sometimes feels arch. It can feel like a sketch stretched too long.

Mistress America poster

A Prophet2009

Both are the same year, both pit character against consequence, both suggest that some doors, once opened, can't be closed. Humpday's comedy is a tonal inversion of Audiard's violence, but the moral engine is identical.

Jacques Audiard's prison thriller about transformation and complicity. It has none of Humpday's comedy, but the same unflinching look at what happens when you say yes to something you didn't expect, and how that changes you forever.

But It's entirely in French. It's brutal and bleak. The protagonist becomes morally compromised in ways that don't resolve. If you need hope or justice, you won't find it.

A Prophet poster

A Perfect Couple1979

Both films trust that you're watching for the specific texture of these specific people together, not for plot. Both suggest that connection is stranger and more valuable than convenience. Humpday made intimate discomfort funny; Altman made romantic vulnerability funny in exactly the same era's spirit, just a decade earlier.

Robert Altman's screwball comedy about two people from different worlds trying to make something work despite every objection from their environments. It's warm, weird, and genuinely romantic in a way that sneaks up on you.

But It's a 1979 American romantic comedy that hasn't been restored or celebrated. It moves at its own pace. If you're not tuned to Altman's wavelength, it'll feel scattered and slow.

A Perfect Couple poster

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