Quick Review: Bros
A Romantic Comedy That Gives You All The Feels
INTRODUCTION
The following is my review for the film Bros. A reminder, you can click this link to see how I grade films when I review them.
PLOT
Two men with commitment problems attempt a relationship.
REVIEW
Earlier this year I watched and reviewed Fire Island, a gay rom-com from Hulu that I quite enjoyed and gave a solid B+ review to. While that was a step forward for the queer community in representation on screen that isn’t just “bury your gays” or gay trauma, it wasn’t a big studio theatrical release.
That’s where Bros comes along - released by Universal Studios, produced by the one and only Judd Apatow, directed by Nicholas Stoller, co-written by Billy Eichner who happens to also play our main lead in Bobby, and with Luke Macfarlane as his romantic interest in Aaron.
What struck me about this movie is that for all the predictable rom-com tropes it still follows, it also subverts some of them and openly makes fun of its own subgenre. Even as a boring straight dude the jokes landed with me and I caught some inside jokes that the gay community is sure to understand, but obviously I didn’t catch all of them either. It has raunchy humor that earns its Rated-R rating, but it never felt like it was being crass for crass’ sake either. The writing here is so sharp that there was one joke that had me literally choking on my popcorn because I laughed so hard.
One major part of the movie that I especially appreciated is that where some rom-coms make the love interest feel like a price to be won without much layer to them, we actually get a story arc with the character of Aaron every bit as much as Bobby gets one.
There are some things in this that might feel off for us straight folk in terms of what a typical woo-ing looks like, but as Bobby even says during the prologue of the film the queer community loves and dates differently than we do. So as someone not in the community I FEEL like it perfectly captured the differences, but obviously that isn’t for me to say definitively and I will keep mind of what my peers who do belong to the community have to say on this one.
If I were to mention any gripes with it, it would be that it does seem to overstay its welcome a bit. This is a two hour film that could have shaved off fifteen to twenty minutes by editing down some jokes that maybe ran too long.
But I found this to be such a hilarious, well written film, that breaks ground socially and delivers a great romantic story that had me rooting for these two to stay together. If you need some light-fare given the state of the world, or you need a small break from the darkness that dominates Halloween/spooky season, go get your bros (or gals) together and watch this at your nearest movie theatre.
INITIAL GRADE
