Bros
The first major studio romcom with a fully LGBTQ+ cast, Bros might prove too niche even for a gay audience – but it certainly has a barbed wit.
Rough and ready: Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner
With Bros, the adult American romcom has truly come of age – and flounced out of the closet. Much of it is pretty niche, and very New York, but it is formulaic and sentimental enough – and genuinely witty – that it may cross over to a mainstream audience. It is certainly tumescent with great lines, which may well be filched and paid homage to by future straight filmmakers (Bobby: “Self-confidence is just knowing that you’re the only person left that you can count on”).
The comedian and co-writer Billy Eichner plays Bobby Lieber, a cynical, neurotic, intense, smart, angry and emotionally unavailable podcast presenter. He tells it like it is, brandishing his promiscuity on his sleeve and re-writing gay history (he is convinced that Abraham Lincoln was, at the very least, bisexual). As it happens, the movie begins during Bisexual Appreciation Week and Bobby is named Best CIS Male Gay Man of the Year at a glitzy LGBTQ+ awards ceremony. He is also on the diverse board of a committee mounting the very first LGBTQ+ museum in New York, a venture struggling to meet its deadlines and still shy of the $5 million it needs to open. Then, to complicate matters, Bobby meets Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane), a probate lawyer described as “really hot” and “really boring.” Hell, Aaron even likes Country & Western music and Garth Brooks and declares that The Hangover is his favourite movie. He also takes steroids and is into rough sex. And he, too, confides in Bobby that he is “emotionally unavailable.” You can see where it’s going…
Billy Eichner, who is openly gay himself, made his name in TV’s Parks and Recreation and voiced Timon in the 2019 The Lion King. Here, he has co-scripted with the director Nicholas Stoller, the latter being something of minor royalty in the sitcom universe (Get Him to the Greek, The Five-Year Engagement, Neighbors) and he has landed Judd Apatow as producer, with the latter’s Apatow Productions providing the financial muscle.
Bros is not going to change the romcom rule book, but it makes important points and is daring and has more than enough energy to turbo-charge its comic motors. And with the celebrity endorsement of the likes of Ben Stiller, Debra Messing, Kristin Chenoweth and Amy Schumer in stellar cameos, it might even attract a curious straight audience not averse to a bit of gay grappling. But more importantly, like all successful examples of its genre, it manages to be both funny and, dare one say it, even rather touching.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane, Amanda Bearse, Guy Branum, Guillermo Díaz, Harvey Fierstein, Miss Lawrence, TS Madison, Dot-Marie Jones, Jim Rash, Eve Lindley, Monica Raymund, Jai Rodriguez, Peter Kim, Justin Covington, Ryan Faecett, Bowen Yang, Brock Ciarlelli, Debra Messing, Ben Stiller, Kristin Chenoweth, Amy Schumer, Seth Meyers.
Dir Nicholas Stoller, Pro Judd Apatow, Nicholas Stoller and Joshua Church, Ex Pro Billy Eichner, Screenplay Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller, Ph Brandon Trost, Pro Des Lisa Myers, Ed Daniel Gabbe, Music Marc Shaiman, Costumes Tom Broecker.
Apatow Productions/Global Solutions-Universal Pictures.
116 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 30 September 2022. UK Rel: 28 October 2022. Cert. 15.
