‘Bros’ Movie Review: Billy Eichner’s Gay Romantic Comedy

Contents:

• CRAFTG A ROM-COM THAT’S TE TO 21ST-CENTURY GAY LIFE

CRAFTG A ROM-COM THAT’S TE TO 21ST-CENTURY GAY LIFE

The movie, which was -wrten by Eichner and director Nicholas Stoller, also stars Guy Branam, Guillermo Diaz, Ts Madison, Raven, and Bowen 's the first gay romantic edy film to be released theaters by a major stud and the first wh an all-LGBTQ+ prcipal st, 's not the first gay rom- ever. In fact, there have been several over the years, wh que a few g out the past few years you liked Bros, here are some other gay rom-s you n check out! This movie was a morn retellg of Pri and Prejudice, also starrg Bowen Yang, Conrad Rimora, Matt Rogers, and Tomas Matos, set at the gay statn of Fire Island P was one of our favore movi of the year.

Starrg Nick Robson and directed by Greg Berlanti, this movie follows a closeted teen who's aaid he'll be outed when the emails he's wrten to a fellow gay stunt are disvered. Billy Eichner, Le Macfarlane, and Bros director Nicholas Stoller exclively tell EW how they vised their groundbreakg gay sex scene Universal's romantic edy, and volved a lot of improvisatn, lghs, but also reful nsiratn of how to prent a tenr, extremely specific, and kk-iendly moment to the mass.

'Renée Zellweger 'loved the joke' of Billy Eichner namg a fake gay app after her  BrosBilly Eichner got emotnal filmg Bros gay rom- scen 'the way Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan' didBilly Eichner 'actively pursued' Symone for her Bros role after seeg her talents on RuPl's Drag RaceBilly Eichner's LGBTQ+ st shatters rom- history  Bros trailer: 'Love is love… that is bulls---! The LGBTQ romantic edy stars Eichner and Le Macfarlane as a gay uple navigatg the plited onle datg world, wh a few obstacl — and people — thrown along the way.

At the begng of “Bros, ” a popular podster named Bobby (Billy Eichner) tells his listeners that he was recently asked for feedback on a gay romantic edy — one that was pched to him as a sweet, funny, accsible movie that would appeal to straight and gay dienc alike. Gay and straight experienc aren’t terchangeable, he says, and ’s ridiculo to expect the former to nform to Hollywood’s monogamy-md feel-good imperativ.

They’re at a lnch party for a gay datg app (the name of which alone is worth the price of admissn), though neher Bobby nor Aaron is really lookg for actn, let alone somethg more ser.

”) But the movie, takg s cu om Bobby’s expertise, mov past breezy Apatovian allivens to a realm of media cricism as snarky as is are jok about a TV work’s cynil explosn of queer-themed output (“A Holly, Poly Christmas” is one of the better on) and affectnate eye rolls at the sanized, sentimentalized pictns of gay men on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “Scht’s Creek. ” There are also jabs at prtige dramas like “Brokeback Mounta” and “Milk, ” maly for their Osr-iendly practice of stg straight actors as gay characters sted for tragedy. Though hardly the only gay romantic edy of note to emerge recent months (like Hulu’s “Fire Island, ” whose Bowen Yang pops up here as a lofty Provcetown lnaire), do boast the notable big-stud precent of an entirely LGBTQ prcipal st, albe one whose racial and sexual diversy happens to prop up a love story between two whe, cisgenr, gay men — somethg the movie acknowledg wh both a wk and a wce.

Directed by Fettg Sarah Marshall filmmaker Nicholas Stoller—who also -wrote the script wh Eichner—this meta-edy fds Eichner playg a screenwrer named Bobby Lieber, a gay man who is hired to wre a rom- about a gay uple. I didn’t want to dimish “the first major stud movie wrten by and starrg a gay man” or spoil s Rotten Tomato sre or dance on the grave of s box-office prospects.I certaly didn’t want to attack the star of “Billy on the Street” and “Difficult People,” two of the most succsful screen adaptatns of the gay sensibily recent memory.

As Variety poted out s topsy of the film’s box office flop, s dreadful $4.8-ln take “means many LGBTQ viewers didn’t show up to see the edy theaters eher.”Do that make too the “homophobic weirdos” of Eichner’s nfoundg post-bomb tweet spiral or simply the silent Benedict Arnolds of his self-proclaimed march to the history books?“Even wh glowg reviews, great Rotten Tomato sr, an A CemaSre etc, straight people, pecially certa parts of the untry, jt didn’t show up for Bros.

It is emently ldable that Eichner has ma a sexually ank stud edy featurg two gay men, and that he sisted, as wgman/-star/-producer Guy Branum not, on an all-LGBTQ st. Its laceratg send-ups of token reprentatn Hallmark Christmas movi; the “hnted hoe of gay trma” that pop culture pass off as queer history; even Eichner’s own public persona are all a potent, knowg nod to the ongog challeng of tellg LGBTQ stori — of livg LGBTQ liv — whout simply repurposg a tired, old, straight script.Until the culmatg ame of s fal act, that is, when the image of two nventnally attractive gay men kissg is posned, lerally, as the ldatory bookend to “5,000 years of gay love stori erased om the history books.” For a film otherwise allergic to moralizg, this sure seems like “old-fashned heteronormative nonsense” to me. And yet, spe the affi Eichner and I share on paper — no, bee of the affi we share on paper — I reil at “Bros’” squanred privilege, bristle at s star’s attempt to hi s shortgs behd the veil of homophobia.