In Bros, two wildly different men who are both afraid of committed romantic relationships find that their differences are the best thing about them. But is that enough for a long-lasting relationship? Hot on the heels of this summer’s Fire Island, Billy Eichner (Billy on the Street, Difficult People, The Lion King) both wrote and stars in this gay romcom.
Bros
Nicholas Stoller (director and writer), Billy Eichner (writer), Brandon Trost (cinematography), Daniel Gabbe (editor)
Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane (cast)
September 9, 2022 (TIFF)
Bros follows podcaster and writer Bobby (Billy Eichner), who isn’t ready for commitment. And he’s okay with that. He’s happy with his life. With the Grindr meetups that always start with a ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and end with unsatisfactory hookups and zero conversation. He’s more interested in his role as a member of the board of a new LGBTQ+ museum, anyway. The internal politics of whose idea should get a display and whose shouldn’t are enough to occupy him.
But then he makes an unexpected connection with fellow commitment-phobe Aaron (Luke Macfarlane). Aaron is described to Bobby as boring and while his job certainly is, Aaron is the definition of hot—muscled and chiseled. Bobby expects to have no intellectual conversations with Aaron. But Aaron is actually surprisingly insightful. And he’s a good listener. Suddenly, Bobby finds himself reconsidering what love really means to him.
I’m going to be completely honest here, I haven’t got enough knowledge about rom-coms to tell you if Bros is formulaic or not. It’s not exactly like Single All the Way, another gay rom-com featuring Macfarlane, but it isn’t Fire Island either (apologies, these are the only queer rom-coms I’ve seen in the past year).
Bros certainly has some great moments that will make one’s queer heart swell. It’s a beautiful film. The shots of New York and the interiors of the parties and apartments are stunning. The introductory shot for Macfarlane’s Aaron was a particular highlight. He has a very sweet face but the lighting, the angle, the music slowing down? It was a great way to connect the audience to the character.
The humour is fun and sarcastic, so if that’s your style, you will love Bros. I found myself giggling and guffawing quite a bit since I love me a little sarcasm. Most of the humour comes from Eichner’s Bobby but other characters also add their own brand of humour to the proceedings. I especially loved when characters would send up queer pop culture made by straight people. Actually, all the jokes at the expense of straight people were hilarious. (Sorry, straight people.)
However, there’s a serious undertone to Bros that I think will probably set it apart from other films in the rom-com genre. Centred almost entirely in the queer world aside from a tiny handful of straight characters, Bros deals with a lot of issues that queer people will recognize. Being in the closet and coming out. Toning down one’s ‘flamboyance’ in order to fit in. Having to search for queer history when the world has done such a good job of suppressing it all. I found myself so drawn to these aspects of Bros. They were moving and relatable and made me feel like I was watching a film made for me.
But the queer history story is actually a really small part of Bros. The story primarily focuses on Bobby and Aaron’s will-they-won’t-they romance. That’s where it falls into a few notable cliches. There’s the moment with Aaron coming to Bobby’s rescue when a conversation with a donor goes south. We’ve got the cute montage of them exploring a picturesque town together. There’s the inevitable breakdown of the relationship when one of them is too much themselves and the other can’t accept it. I may not have a wide rom-com vocabulary but I’ve read enough to see the signs and I wish Bros had aimed to tell a different story.
Its greatest weakness is that the most interesting characters are all around Bobby. He is just not the greatest protagonist for a film. Bobby is self-centred and he really does talk too much. He wants to spread the word about gay history and that’s admirable but he doesn’t let anyone else speak! What about the lesbians, the bisexuals, the trans community, the BIPOC queers? He’s reminded of these communities within the larger queer community and he still talks over everyone. And I’m more than a little miffed that Bros never once mentions pansexuals, aromantic or asexual people.
It’s also frustrating that Bobby monologues about not being allowed to be himself but fails to acknowledge his privilege as a cis white man in America. Also, why are so many films pivoting to monologues? Nobody ever gets to talk that long without being interrupted!
And then we have Aaron. We know he’s got a dull job and is afraid of commitment. Why though? That’s never clear. He’s also super buff, which is an ideal in the queer community, but does he want to be? Is he trying to fit that gay ideal or does he actually like working out? There’s a lot of body stuff in Bros that’s never fully interrogated. There are wry asides about how frustrating it is that gay men are only attracted to one body type but it’s not like Bobby or Aaron are lusting after the fat men in the community. Don’t even start on the disability-erasure.
I also don’t think Macfarlane was the right choice for some of Aaron’s plot points. When Aaron is being sweet and sensitive, Macfarlane does a great job. The moment he has to be douchey, it’s just not believable. It’s like Macfarlane can’t muster up the meanness to be the douchebag jock Aaron is written to be so it’s hard to believe that there’s any real animosity between him and Bobby.
That’s part of the reason why the ending of Bros didn’t feel particularly earned to me. It’s both rushed and too slow. A lot of time is compressed into the third act but the resolution happens in five minutes. My understanding is that this is a rom-com staple but when there were so many realistic elements scattered throughout the film, it was difficult to suspend my disbelief right at the end.
I do wonder if I’m holding Bros to a higher standard than other films, though. We have precious little queer cinema and we’re only just getting more mainstream romantic queer stories now. I’m glad Bros exists, of course, but shouldn’t we be pushing the envelope? Two cis white gay guys with conventional body types figuring out if they love each other or not is fine but how many queer people are going to see themselves in Bobby and Aaron? How many folks have supportive parents and money to fall back on to follow their dreams? I don’t expect Bros to be for all queer people but a little acknowledgment that this isn’t the definitive tale for all queer people would go a long way.
I wanted to fall in love with Bros. And I did love a lot of it. The film is beautiful to look at. The chemistry between the actors is undeniable. But it also relies on too many clichés and the protagonist isn’t likeable — nor does he learn from his mistakes. Some of the humour is fun but some of it is cringey and maybe not deliberately so? In the end though, it’s a new queer film in a tiny group of queer films and every little bit does help. We’re taking baby steps to better queer cinema and films like Bros, Single all the Way, and the excellent Fire Island are paving the way for gay men to be out and proud to tell their stories.
