Chums

As a man who really struggles with romcoms at the best of times, I was rather nervous about this. Actually, though, it steers clear of some (though not all) of the gay stereotypes and presents us with a genuinely quite funny love story about two forty-somethings who meet in a nightclub. One, "Bobby" (Billy Eichner) is a ordinary looking, gobby podcaster and activist who is trying to raise the money needed for an American National LGBTQ+ museum. The other is "Aaron" (Luke Macfarlane) - a lawyer who spends a fair amount of time on the cross-fit. They wouldn't appear to be the most natural of fits but a series of brief encounters on their opening night coupled with a fair degree of sarcasm and a kiss sets the tone for what happens next. Certainly, anyone who has a Dekkoo subscription will have seen the format before - and often, and this doesn't really vary the theme much. What does make this different is the characters have much more depth. Their relationship is never going to be straightforward and though sometimes delivered via annoyingly angry monologues, the character of "Bobby" makes some fairly profound and well reasoned arguments about the constraints history has imposed on people of differing sexualities over the years. Eichner is effective as a man who uses his sharp and pithy tongue to prove the best form of defence is attack, Macfarlane proves to be far more than the man with the muscle, and the writing from the former and director Nicholas Stoller clearly demonstrates that both men have skin in this particular game. Experience has clearly informed and fuelled this creative process. It can be a bit hit or miss, especially the third quarter when it all becomes a bit contrived, but the ending redeems it rather - if only for the pure schmaltz of the serenade - and I rather enjoyed it. It sure doesn't need a cinema screening, but it is entertainingly provocative at times. The BBFC slide at the top warned of "strong sex". Clearly they have never watched "Theo and Hugo" (2016) because there is nothing at all visual in this that could conceivably cause offence; even the language is comparatively mild.

Billy is no Julia Roberts in "My best friend's wedding". He can't pull off being neurotic yet charming. I struggled during the first 45 minutes wondering if I should turn my TV off or carry on. You only have to see the first five minutes to understand why Luke McFarland's character would ask him to tone it down during a family meeting (with relatives that look nothing like each other). You just can't root for this very annoying leading man, who is skeptical but chooses a restaurant with live dance and songs as a good spot for a family outing. The gag is the music during awkward moments. Funny!

For a movie that keeps making fun of Hallmark movies, they really needed to be more self-aware.

The editing is also really bad. It looks like a Netflix reality where it's painfully obvious that close-ups were part of a different take.

It seems like they came up with sketches or gags first and then they wondered how they could put them all together through a needlessly long story. Most of the artists are overacting as if that would make this funnier.

Luke is decent enough in his performance, but he has been better in other things.

Marketed as the first gay romantic comedy to get a theatrical release (which Fire Island would dispute), Bros is meant to be groundbreaking. Is it? In my opinion no.

It's your average rom com with a storyline thats been done dozens of times. It felt very similar to Bridesmaids and Trainwreck, which makes sense given its producer and director.

Whilst it's modern and satirical, it's at times too obvious in its attempts to be clever. At first I enjoyed them poking fun at 'hallmark' movies but they took it too far and it soon lost its appeal.

My biggest gripe with the film is it's lead Billy Eichner. He is a polarizing person, and in this film he basically plays himself. I could see he was trying to show off his acting chops with lots of dialogue but I didn't really buy him as a leading man. Luke Macfarlane's character was more likable, but overall basic, underdeveloped and one note.

Some comical moments but it's not the laugh out loud comedy that I was hoping it would be.

As a mostly gay bisexual guy married to another bisexual man - who lives in a majorly gay town, I hasten to add - I really wanted to love this film. I found the script to be witty and provocative, and I thought that the performances, production and direction were excellent. It was an extremely well-crafted passion project into which Billy Eichner clearly poured his heart.

Nevertheless, within five minutes, I found myself longing for the exit. I wasn't bored; I was exasperated! Yet another major Hollywood movie with unhappy, self-loathing gays in it, who seem to do nothing but talk about being gay, and demonstrating through their words and deeds what a miserable, unfulfilling experience it is to be gay in American society. If I were still a youngster on the cusp of coming out, this movie would have made me want to slip right back into the closet! It's a rom-com so at least the main characters didn't have to die at the end of the movie; how novel! But the universe that these characters inhabit... awkward, uncomfortable and distasteful. It was like a documentary of some of the worst aspects of the gay community rolled into one very misleading impression, shallow and somewhat materialistic. I'm polyamorous so it wasn't the sleeping around that bothered me, it was the WAY that these guys slept around, the way that they treated one another, that upset me... the unenlightened assumptions, the strident attitude of the film, the thinly veiled cruelty everywhere. My husband said, "This was not a comedy." Can't the LGBT community itself move past The Boys in the Band yet? Does every major Hollywood LGBT flick have to rub man's inhumanity to man - particularly the gay man - in our faces? Can't we just go out to the movies and have a fun time seeing ourselves reflected on the screen without having to suffer so much? Sure, this movie has a happy, modern rom-com ending that brings a tear to your eye. But is it worth sitting through two hours of awkwardness, bitterness, and intolerable preachiness to get there? When will LGBT characters be allowed to be normal romantic leads in a film that isn't about the trials and sufferings of being LGBT?

I mean, I wasn't crazy about Crazy Rich Asians either despite being Asian-American myself... it had a similar problem: too much wealthy Ching Ching Ding Dong and not enough universal humanity. But Crazy Rich Asians was a bastion of universality compared to Bros.

Don't get me wrong, Bros had some hilarious material in it that was quite memorable. I especially loved the LGBT museum having to install a Haunted Mansion of Gay Trauma amusement park ride in order to get the funding it needed to open. Honestly, the entire finished LGBT museum in the movie was insanely wrong-headed and thus utterly hilarious! The moronic Hall of Bisexuals with the audio animatronic mannequins was also memorable and funny in its egotistical ineffectualness. But, all in all, I found the dystopian vision of LGBT life in Bros to be ultimately nauseating despite its creators' best intentions to do so much more.

So, while I wholeheartedly support people going to see this film in order to encourage Hollywood brass to fund other, more pleasant movies with LGBT leads, I can't really recommend Bros either. I'm just saddened that the financial failure of Bros will probably keep the studio execs from green lighting other LGBT projects that might be more fun to sit through.

My Reviews. - Review Bros

My Rating 6/10

Bros is the latest LGBTQI rom com movie with some amusing moments some interesting brief cameos from Harvey Fierstein as Louis and Debra Messing as herself some eye candy from Luke Macfarlane as Aaron the buff half of this romantic duo . Unfortunately his other half Bobby played by Billy Eichner who co wrote Bros with the Director Nicholas Stoller is one of the most irritating gay characters I've seen on screen in a long while.

It's Billy the character I found annoying not Billy Eichner because the character is far to "woke ". I'm saying that as a mature age gay man that has experienced much of the LGBTQI history that Bobby Leiber constantly refers to preserving in the movie . I'm probably out of synch with terms like Cisgender, Gender Variant, Gender fluid and all the other current correct pronouns .

The plot is understandably simple for a rom-com it revolves Bobby Leiber, a born and bred New Yorker who 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) .

Billy as the director of the first national LGBTQ history museum is raising money for The LGBTQI plus History Museum in New York . His passion is LGBTQI + history and is passionate about the lack of truth in historical characters and what he perceives to be there "gayness" characters like President Abraham Lincoln.

Billy meets his opposite in temperament and physical appearance handsome Aaron and the differences in their interests and social compatibility threaten to end their most important togetherness gift which is they make each other happy.

Bros has been heavily marketed as the first American gay romantic comedy from a major studio featuring an entirely LGBTQ principal cast (though Fire Island (2022) -also an gay romantic comedy from a major studio featuring an LGBTQ principal cast -was released earlier in the same year .

Fire Island did not get a full theatrical release like Bros and in my opinion is a much better movie with more believable characters .

I hope this film succeeds as we do need more LGBTQI movies for our community to relate to unfortunately I was disappointed with this movie as I found there was to much emphasis on political correctness and more joke less woke was needed.

If the Producers are just targeting an LGBTQI plus audience that's ok but I doubt very much that there is much in this movie for a wider audience which is where our stories should be inclusive .

Perhaps it our LGBTQI culture in Australia that's different to America ,perhaps I just missed the point ? But Bros just didn't hit my funny bone at all.