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The movie “Bros,” which Billy Eichner co-wrote and stars in, has been hailed as the first major Hollywood studio-backed rom-com to have gay men as the primary characters. The picture, which was directed by Nicholas Stoller and was made by Judd Apatow, purposefully references cliches from the heyday of studio-backed romantic comedies. Meg Ryan classics are referenced, and Eichner gives a strong lead performance. However, its ongoing criticism of the normalization of queerness continues to conflict with its ambition to tell its story inside the confines of the Hollywood system.
Eichner portrays Bobby Leiber, a native New Yorker who is the director of the first national LGBTQ history museum, which is just about to open its doors. He also hosts a queer history podcast called 11th Brick (because, as a cis white gay man, that’s probably the brick he’d have thrown at Stonewall). Bobby, who is now 40, has been by himself for the majority of his life and believes that this is best for him. “We’re foolish, self-centered, and horny. He tells a group of buddies that he prefers hookups over anything long-term because “I don’t trust these folks.
Bobby’s life and plans are altered by meeting Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) in a club in this self-aware romantic comedy. Before we know it, the two have resolved to maintain their emotional distance from one another. What comes next is a conventional romantic comedy with an LGBT twist, complete with dates, sex, fights, and family meetings. The jazzy Nat King Cole tunes on the soundtrack help to conjure up a New York Autumn in the vein of Nora Ephron.
The museum’s opening preparations are the love tale of Bobby and Aaron’s running B-side. Here, we can see Bobby’s (and perhaps Eichner’s) love of queer culture and history. The museum board is made up of a diverse group of queer individuals, including a nonbinary person, a Black trans woman, a confrontational bisexual, and a butch lesbian. Unfortunately, every character comes across as a cliché, which was probably done on purpose since the entire movie utilizes queer identity as a punchline. Because LGBT people can laugh at ourselves, many of the jokes actually get funny. A rom-com like “When Harry met Sally” is so well-known not just for the realism of Harry and Sally, but also for the fact that all of its characters seem to be genuine people, which is what Eichner and co-writer Stoller appear to have forgotten.
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Although most of the characters are underdeveloped, Eichner’s dialogue and situational comedy are filled with his razor-sharp wit and biting humor as he mocks many facets of homosexual dating culture, such as Grindr hookups, excessive gym use, and group sex. There aren’t several references to gay history or famous queer people like Cher, Barbra Streisand, and Mariah Carey in the script.
Eichner also pokes fun at the modern commodification of queer culture within the entertainment industry, including the reboot of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” everyone’s love of “Schitt’s Creek,” and Hallmark’s inclusion of queer rom-coms after realizing there was money to be made (going so far as to create fake titles like “Christmas with Either” and “A Holly Poly Christmas”). The self-aware rom-com beats in “Bros” find it walking the same ground, despite the fact that Eichner rejects this very sanitization of queerness.
Bros Quiz
Bobby tells the museum board toward the end of the movie, “We argue a lot and always have, but you’re my people.” This serves as “Bros'” guiding principle: to portray homosexual people as messy, to depict the queer community as diverse, and to have them be as outspoken and loud and occupy as much space as possible by being who they truly are.
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And it’s wonderful to see a mainstream Hollywood production of this caliber with such comprehensive LGBTQ representation. However, by focusing on the romance between two cis, conventionally gorgeous white gay men, it undermines its own theme of bringing queer history and queer existence out from the periphery. Eichner is the first to acknowledge his privilege; early on, his character receives a Best Cis White Gay Man of the Year award at an LGBTQ event. Being self-aware, however, doesn’t have the same impact as making the lead character in the movie a cis white homosexual man who is not the main focus of the narrative.
Eichner’s “Bros” is obviously a labor of love, and as a petulant bisexual (petulant pansexual?) myself, I found the humor to be really funny. I was struck by the central relationship because I’m a commitment-phobe who only discovered romance later in life. Furthermore, I thought the ongoing Garth Brooks joke was directed exclusively at me as a country girl. It also seems at odds with Eichner’s goal to sanitize queerness so that it is acceptable to heterosexual culture while simultaneously bringing queerness, gay sex, and gay dating to mainstream Hollywood studio-backed cinema.
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The film seems to care very little about the gay films that came before it, despite being so focused on the significance of mainstreaming queer history. The only other queer film mentioned is Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name” in a passing joke about how it’s the one queer movie to which all straight people compare other queer movies, aside from jabs at both “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Power of the Dog,” both of which were directed by and starred by straight people. “Bros” is as responsible for keeping queer history (in this case, cinematic history) in the dark as has happened to the other aspects that Bobby’s LBGTQ museum is ostensibly shining a light on by emphasizing only those few films and neglecting queer cinematic pioneers in the process. The museum’s goal is to present history through a gay lens, but the movie doesn’t appear to see filmmaking in the same light. Even worse, “Bros” considers itself to be the most significant pioneer just because it is operating on a mass level.
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On September 10, this review was submitted following the film’s world debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. On September 30, “Bros” will debut.
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