Bros

Ever since I knew I was gay, I've always been on the lookout for people of a similar nature, as humans naturally do. "Gay" people in film/tv have often been heavily stereotyped. EG the effeminate gay best friend, or the badass butch lesbian who is just one of the boys.

While bros does try a little bit harder to break through the stereotyped glass ceiling, it still falls into that category of trying so hard to be gay that it feels unrelatable to most gay people, and no doubt straight people as well.

It's not a bad movie and is quite entertaining, and is worth the watch for those elements. But a core idea of this movie is the normalisation of sexuality with society, which is something it fails to do.

Normalisation occurs when we have love stories between peole who happen to be gay, like Brokeback Mountain. A character's sexuality should not be the driving force behind the movie; the characters should be interesting in themselves in a variety of ways.

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.

Your enjoyment of this film will very likely hinge on how long you can tolerate Billy Eichner and his shtick. He is almost unbearable at the onset of the film, and while he gets better as it progresses, he can still be difficult to root for. Bros also tries its hardest to push its way out from the rest of the pack, but falls back on lots of genre conventions.

There are some genuinely clever bits strewn throughout and I found myself actually amused more than I expected. The film can be pretty in your face at times, largely due to Eichner and his towering personality, however Bros shines when it showcases its two leads' chemistry and rapport.

I went into this movie with no real expectations except from enjoying some of the directors previous comedies. The only real problem I had with this movie was Billy. His character is not likable and there were several times throughout the film where I wondered why anyone would want to be in a relationship with this person. I was not familiar with the other actor who played his boyfriend in the movie but he did a phenomenal job and was very sympathetic and portrayed aside of gay men that I do not see on film very often. Billy's character is catty, insecure, and loud. He's not sympathetic. I don't know if another actor could've pulled this off better, but Billy was definitely the problem with this movie. Which is funny because he wrote the movie for himself and portrayed himself as the least likable character in the entire film.

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.