Bros. MA15+. 115 minutes. Four stars.
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The American comedian Billy Eichner is an interesting figure, having found cult success with his funny online vox populi interview show Billy on the Street, where the surly New Yorker shouts his questions to passers-by, building a popularity that found his series better-funded and with big-name stars joining him harassing people.
His cult success led to small but scene-stealing roles in Parks and Recreation and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, playing a version of himself as an angry struggling actor in Difficult People, to voice-over work in huge productions like the 2019 remake of The Lion King.
By the time we come to the Billy Eichner of Bros, this new big-budget queer romantic comedy, he is a toned and aerobicised shadow of his former schlubby self, but still riffing on his witty but uptight queer New York shtick.
Eichner wrote the screenplay for this homage to romantic comedies of the Nora Ephron school, a la When Harry Met Harry, with director Nicholas Stoller, and the whole thing is produced by Judd Apatow, spinner of comedy straw into gold.
Eichner plays, who'd have thought, an uptight queer New Yorker. Bobby (Eichner) is the director of an in-development LGBTQIA+ history museum, his work focusing on raising the last of an enormous amount of money needed to bring the museum dream to fruition.
Blowing off steam at a nightclub one night, Bobby gets hit on by handsome shirtless himbo Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), actually a lawyer who is familiar with Bobby's interviews and podcasts.
There's a strong attraction between the two men, and they do eventually spend the night together, but there are so many things to get in the way of a possible happily-ever-after.
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Firstly, both are commitment-phobic, each for his own reasons, and Bobby's insecurity over the gym-jock type he thinks Aaron will eventually leave him for has him acting out in hostile ways to push Aaron away before any hurt could happen.
But the two give it a try, obviously enjoying each other's company and being good for each other, though what would a good romantic comedy be without a dozen more hurdles in the way of that possible future happiness?
There's a bunch of think-piece articles in the US media about this film not working at the box office and asking if the mainstream cinema audience is too homophobic to allow a gay comedy like this to work.
There are aspects of this film that would make plenty of audience members uncomfortable - the raunchier sex-comedy moments, with gags about amyl nitrate, or the awkwardness of being the fourth person in a gay sex foursome, but that stuff isn't in the trailer or the film's marketing, and you'd need to have already bought your ticket to discover it.
But mainstream audiences have lapped up straight films with content this raunchy for ever, so suck it up, mainstream audiences, buy a ticket and enjoy one of the most legitimately funny films to come out in some time.
Eichner and Stoller pack this film with gags.
I laughed out embarrassingly loud more than a dozen times. They are very funny, and the film is insightful through the cutting and self-deprecating gags.
Eichner writes himself an easy role to play but a hard role to love, because Bobby's whole thing is pushing people away.
Macfarlane is wonderful casting as Aaron, his career having enjoyed a few Hallmark seasonal romantic films, so he's comfortable in the landscape.
The film is peppered with small roles for big names, a bunch of Judd Apatow's pals, and pop culture figures like Amanda Bearse (remember Marcie, the next door neighbour from Married with Children?) playing Aaron's mother, and there are strong comedic moments for queer figures like Jim Rash (the Oscar-winning screenwriter) and trans reality star Ts Madison.
I'm less interested in how well a film like Bros does at the American cinema box office, a metric that is mattering less and less, then in new metrics for success, like rewatchability.
I'd certainly watch Bros again, and again.
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