Bros: Movie Review

Cast: Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Surprisingly conventional and uneven for its apparent mainstream trailblazing release, Bros is a romcom that follows all the tropes and beats of the genre, while peppering the screenplay with moments of insight into the queer community.

Eichner plays angry neurotic Bobby Lieber, whose 11th Brick podcast is beloved by millions, but whose personal life is a mess, as he's still single at 40. While he's happy with that and endless Grindr hookups, he finds his world changed when he meets Aaron (Macfarlane).

With both sides initially resisting their connection and a desire to begin dating, the pair are inexorably drawn into each other's orbit...

While Bros is to be commended for its mainstream release and its pushing of a gay romcom into cinemas, it feels somewhat muted and uneven throughout in both tone and pace.

Eichner is fine, but feels subdued in his role, with his character's continual rants pushing the LBGTQ+ community coming across as feeling more desperate and meta rather than natural to the story.

Granted, his Bobby is somewhat of a crusader, but it's clear Eichner's passion comes to the fore in these more forceful moments. However, the film isn't really sure how it wants to push the boundaries other than allowing a gay romcom to be made in the first place.

Disappointingly, that's not enough for a film that has the edge when it needs to.

Needling of parts of the community, mocking Hallmark's incessant Christmas output and providing some unexpected laughs and boundary breaking moments, the film clearly does have somewhat of a bite in it when exploring the New York scene and gay life in general.

But that much needed edge is too liberally sprinkled throughout, giving Bros a kind of up and down mentality that makes it feel more uneven than eventful.

It doesn't help that most of the other characters feel lightly written, a once over degree of depth that makes for shallow bedfellows as it plays out. There are self- aware moments, and there are laughs to be had here , but it's perhaps mortifying just how conventional this story is.

It's all very well platforming it and applauding it for doing so, but in embracing the tropes of the genre, and doing very little with them or even doing something different with them means Bros is a disappointing outing.