My Effortless Brilliance writer/director Lynn Shelton takes the topic of male bonding to new extremes with this comedy about two best friends who make an unusual pact that both may soon come to regret. Back in college, Andrew and Ben were inseparable. Years later, Andrew comes knocking on Ben's door and makes the discovery that that his wild former roommate has fallen into a life of depressive domestication. Of course it doesn't take long for the two overgrown adolescents to fall into the usual pattern of ultra-macho one-upmanship, and before long Andrew has hatched a plan to save Ben from a passionless existence in suburbia. There's a party at a sex-positive commune, and the revelers are producing erotic art films for the local amateur porn film festival. Andrew is interested, but after running out of booze and ideas the pair isn't sure how to proceed. Just then, inspiration hits: Andrew and Ben should have sex on camera. Of course it isn't a gay thing, just an artistic experiment. The following day, neither Andrew nor Ben is willing to back down from their unique proposal, and the only things preventing them from moving forward with the plan are the slight complications of heterosexuality, and Ben's disapproving wife Anna.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide