Bros

Grade: B-

“Do you guys remember straight people?”

“Yeah, they had a nice run.”

This is one of many memorable exchanges from Bros, opening in theaters today. It’s been heavily touted as the first American gay romantic comedy from a major studio featuring an entirely LGBTQ principal cast. A laudable achievement worth shouting from the rooftops.

I know Billy Eichner as the voice of Timon in Jon Favreau’s The Lion King remake. He co-wrote the screenplay with director Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) – and stars as Bobby, an early 40s man in New York City who has hooked up plenty of times but never had a relationship. He is an avid podcaster, and is working to open an LGBTQ history museum. The roundtable discussions with his fellow committee members at the prospective museum provide the movie with some comedy gold. Many of the best lines are in the trailer.

While out clubbing one night with a friend, Bobby is introduced to Aaron, played by Luke Macfarlane. Speaking in a deep, soft, deadpan register of his voice, he often sounds like every character Patrick Warburton plays. That’s a compliment. It was funny to discover that Macfarlane is a veteran of several Hallmark productions, because Bros milks a comedic throughline about a channel called Hallheart. I am assuming they couldn’t get permission to use the real name. Another example of this is when Bobby is recalling a play he was taken to at age 12, about a handful of gay men who spend a weekend at a lake house. He calls it “Love and Compassion.” That’s close to the title it sounds like he’s talking about. If you know, you know. I was about to ding this as a mistake, but then wondered if this was also slightly changed because of a copyright situation.

Bros may be the first major gay rom-com, but it is a rom-com nonetheless – with its share of predictability, and forceful tugs at the heartstrings. Our heroes meet up to march toward their inevitable happy ending, but not before a conflict followed by a brief breakup, of course. Look up the Dramatic Late Arrival, coined by Roger Ebert. I thought movies had outgrown this convention decades ago, but it is used shamelessly here. I liked the score. It’s very lush, theatrical, melodic, and flamboyant – to the point where at the end of many scenes, as it swelled up, I was convinced someone was going to start singing. Bros is not without its cliches of the genre, but there is fun to be had along the way. It possesses a sweetness and heart, with authentic performances. You could say it’s your typical “boy meets boy” story. I hope that phrase gets to sound more and more normal as time goes on.

Grade: B-