By now, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve seen commercials on YouTube, read interviews on a variety of media, and maybe even seen the film Bros, a gay romantic comedy starring Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane. Universal Pictures has used its considerable clout to get Bros booked into multiplexes everywhere starting September 30. On an LGBT+ meter, it is a 10 out of 10, and a must-see.
Comedian Billy Eichner, best known for his loud, ambush skits Billy on the Street, stars as Bobby Lieber, an aloof, judgemental, New York City gay who sneers at romance. A typical, career-driven, forty-year-old man, he has a gay career creating an LGBT+ museum in New York City by day, and at night going to stylish dance clubs to sip cocktails and dish with catty friends. Such a friend introduces Bobby to hunk-lovely Aaron, played by hunk- lovely actor Luke Macfarlane. Impossibly hot, baseball-cap wearing, and shirtless, Aaron is a forty-year-old god. Director Judd Apatow slyly shows us the chemistry between Aaron and Bobby is instantaneous. Where Bobby is an edgy, flaky, brittle shade queen, Aaron is a mellow, low-key gym hunk who likes Garth Brooks, practices corporate law, and grew up in upstate New York. Aaron is a fan of Bobby’s super gay podcast.
Hilarity of every stripe ensues, taking no prisoners. Lesbians, bisexuals, Debra Messing, Abraham Lincoln, elementary education and educators, the gay voice versus straight voice, testosterone injections, group sex, and more come under comedic scrutiny and assault.
Tellingly, Eichner had asked that two scenes not be filmed on the first day of shooting. The wise director made sure that they were, creating what may indeed be two of the best scenes in the film. The scene on the beach where Bobby delivers a heartfelt outpuring of his soul to Aaron, while the other scene is a wild sex scene between Aaron and Bobby in bed, where even Bobby has his toes licked by Aaron.
Of course, like every rom-com starring Gerald Butler or Bradley Cooper (not together!), our guys experience a crisis. Aaron invites Bobby to meet his parents on their Christmas visit to New York. Seeing Aaron’s conservative parents causes Bobby to snap, stridently extolling all things gay, even when mom says it’s okay to agree to disagree. Bobby, however, wants blood, which infuriates Aaron, and … well … you’ll need to see the movie for yourself.
It is so rare a thing to see two grown men fall in love and to have each discover hidden talents in each other through love. Some may say Bobby and Aaron are unlikely lovers; yet Woody Allen spent decades making himself the leading man and getting the starring lady, so it’s not such a stretch. Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name (beautiful as they were) this ain’t.
Straight Trolls and religious LGBT+ haters have been dismissing the film on social media. Disregard their trash. Bros will make you laugh, maybe cry, and definitely send a gay-positive aura to surround you. As one lesbian exclaimed after the film ended, “I’m glad to be gay! I’m going to see it again!”
You go girl.
Bros is now showing in wide release in multiplexes.