It’s 2022, and a Hollywood studio has just made a movie where two men fall in love and can’t figure out what to do about it. Nobody dies of AIDS. Nobody gets settled on the side of the road. Judd Apatow produced the thing, so you know it’s funny. However, somehow, the “brothers” don’t feel like that big of a deal. Sure, it’s a good-budget, wide-release, R-rated gay romcom that’s historic (if you put enough qualifying adjectives in front of it). But one of those had to come sooner or later. Oddly enough, it looks like there have already been others, and there’s no doubt more to come, considering how hard Hollywood has worked to include gay characters.
The difference in what we’ll call “Billy Eichner’s Hollywood screen kiss” is that it focuses on a gay character, rather than just using it as a rude comedic prop. Beyond that, a cute, eccentric, hyper-detailed, and incredibly self-absorbed comedian has gone and made a movie in which a veiled version of himself wrestles with whether or not he wants to be in a relationship. If this sounds like every Woody Allen movie ever, a Billy Crystal set, or even the last of a few Judd Apatow productions, you won’t be wrong — except that here, some of the dialogue scenes are set during an orgy foursome, because unlike That will rated the movie as PG-13 and you might watch “Love, Simon”.
Eichner plays Bobby Lieber on the podcaster who, in the second scene, accepts the Cis White Gay Man of the Year award. Later, the character will talk about how hard his life was, how straight men worked half the effort and went twice the distance, but where is the evidence? Brothers bring him to the top of the mountain. He’s just been hired to oversee a brand-new LGBTQ+ Museum of History and Culture (Bobby describes it as the first, but like the movie, the others have definitely gotten there before), and the only thing really missing in his life is someone who’ll listen unconditionally while he complains. Or maybe it’s someone who, by showing interest in him, will prove insecure.
Despite some hilarious scenes about dating apps and communication culture (and how, it’s just like the Meg Ryan movie “You got Mail” just doesn’t), it’s not clear to the audience what Bobby wants because it’s not clear to Bobby what he wants. Relationship? A friend with benefits? Sexy man to go home? This uncertainty is perhaps the most authentic thing about “Bros” (gay or straight, men notoriously hate commitment), however, and it could be this element that co-writer and director Nicholas Stoller brings into the equation, considering How smart he examined this aspect of modern dating in “The Five-Year Engagement.”
In “Bros”, Bobby goes to a club one night and sees a chiseled man with an athletic body on the dance floor. He initiates an awkward conversation with this seemingly out of his league piece, Aaron (Luke MacFarlane)—”I hear you’re boring,” he begins, as if trying to try Neil Strauss’ “game” on another guy—and when it backfires, enter a kiss. Bobby finds it refreshing that Aaron isn’t on the apps, but he didn’t bother on the same night, he’s communicating with other people. This is the area where The Bros breaks new ground, since the “rules” of gay romantic comedies haven’t yet been codified: like whether getting someone’s undivided attention is an odd thing or a good thing, and what each should feel like Appreciated and likable personality. Sure, there aren’t many straightforward love stories where a cute encounter is followed by one party setting off to rock the other.
There, surrounded by a sea of shirtless men, the two men bond over their mutual belief that “gay men are too stupid,” which sounds like part of Eichner’s “Hard People” series. But what does such a ruling mean for these two, who have not been offered to read books or discuss politics—unless you factor in talking about the gay experience, which Bobby pretty much does. He has provocative views (like “Love Is Love” was just a marketing gimmick) worth exploring and an odd flair for the movies (Eichner scoffs at how Hallmark Channel embraces LGBT relationships, but doesn’t see the ways in which his own script exploits the same cliches).
. Being a podcast host conveniently serves as a career option adjacent to comedy, allowing the character to wise up as they please, while the function of the Bobby Museum becomes a place to test new material about lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people (Abraham Lincoln’s legacy is reassessed, while Caitlyn Jenner describes as a “cross-terrorist”).
Bros is confident enough about weird characters that you don’t have to make them all likeable. In fact, Eichner may not win you over at all. Aaron clearly loves him, despite spending most of their dates flirting with other men (the movie makes some strong points about body malfunctions among the image-conscious community). When Bobby calls Aaron for something, Bobby ends up prioritizing work. It seems like a big step when the holidays roll around and Aaron suggests introducing Bobby to his parents – but then backs down by saying, “Maybe you could be a little less yourself for three hours,” which Bobby understandably offended.
If you don’t count the epidemic error of “The Bubble,” Apatow’s modern formula — from “Trainwreck” to “King of Staten Island” — is to take a funny person and encourage them to be themselves as much as possible. Almost three hours, so his stance on this comment is clear. But we got it. Eichner deals with a lot, and it’s not because he’s gay. He doesn’t seem interested in sharing oxygen with anyone else. Why is Aaron the one who hates his life and has to quit his job in this movie? Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to somehow evolve the always dissatisfied Bobby, besides just realizing that he was happier with Aaron?
There are plenty of audiences who have been waiting their whole lives for Hollywood to green-light a mainstream gay movie (and sure, we’ll pretend all the gay-friendly content on HBO and Netflix doesn’t matter, and that “Birdcage” and “In & Out” never happened, That John Waters is very cult and ‘Moonlight’ is very marginal). But it wouldn’t be lost on them that when the industry decided they were ready for a movie like “Bros,” they ended up being two traditionally handsome white men. Yes, there is a whole host of experiences that remain unexplored, however, as Bobby and Aaron try to make their relationship work, “Bros” does a decent job of showing how incredibly different and complex these two are. “Straight people like to see us miserable,” Bobby notes at one point, and though Eichner gives gays a happy ending and plenty of laughs along the way, damned if he doesn’t look miserable for most of the movie.
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