In a deleted scene from Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, Jonah Hill goes on a rant about Brokeback Mountain. His point is well-taken: its depiction of gay sex did not need to be so timid and chaste (of course, he expresses this idea in a funnier, more vulgar fashion). Fifteen years have passed since Knocked Up, and yet the characters in the new Apatow-produced romcom Bros still have Brokeback Mountain hang-ups. For a self-aware film that sells itself as the first gay romcom from a major studio, its critiques about gay representation in pop culture are frequently a generation removed. A version of that issue continues to the central romance, which can be charming, but it is mostly strained and a little awkward.
Billy Eichner – who co-wrote and produced the film – stars as Bobby, a single writer and podcaster living in New York. He has no serious relationships, and instead opts for anonymous Grindr hookups that leave him with an ephemeral high. At a release party for a hookup app, Bobby strikes up a conversation with Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), a hunky lawyer. Director and cowriter Nicolas Stoller ably hints at the impasse between the two men: in a sea of men without shirts, Bobby keeps on his polo, suggesting he is self-conscious about his physique. They continue flirting anyway, begin fooling around and resist the emotions they feel for one another. Meanwhile, Bobby begins a career as a curator for the country’s first LGBTQIA+ museum, a profession which forces him evaluate his identity with slightly more scrutiny than before.
If there is a slight lack of chemistry between Eichner and Macfarlane, it actually works in the film’s favor. The “will they/won’t they” tension is not about whether they will spend their lives together, but simply whether they try a real relationship. Early scenes can be blunt, particularly in how Bobby and Aaron push each other’s buttons, and there is sexual freedom in their world that does not exist among their hetero counterparts (Bobby and Aaron first hook up during a foursome, which they perceive as lacking intimacy). It is refreshing to hear open discussion of sex between men, and yet the film still finds ways to be chaste. All the men in Bros keep their underwear on, for one thing, and its critiques of gay representation is still stuck on Queer Eye and Hallmark movies – despite the appearance of lesbian, bi and trans characters. One cannot help but wonder whether Eichner wrote some version of Bros in the 2000s, and then tried to fit into a 2020s mold.
Another, more irksome issue is the Apatow influence on the film’s dialogue and pacing. Anyone who has seen the aforementioned Knocked Up or Trainwreck must remember that Apatow films are significantly longer than they need to be, with dialogue lingering well past the point where a more prudent director would cut. This robs comic scenes of their energy, as if Stoller/Eichner worry that a tighter film would be any less significant. Such a conceit is galling because Eichner, an energetic and hilarious actor, advanced similar sensibilities much more successfully on his sitcom Difficult People that he co-created with Julie Klausner. Sure, a major studio film will be more sanitized than a streaming sitcom, perhaps necessarily, and yet there is a bloat to Bros that goes more noticeable with each period of audience silence.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best scenes in Bros are the most heartfelt. There is a long, clearly personal monologue where Bobby, after being told he’s super-confident, describes his struggles as a way to demonstrate that confidence was never a choice – he either had it or never succeeded. Eichner’s performance is bitter and heartfelt, something that creates an honest moment between him and Macfarlane. Their inevitable “big argument” scene is also terrific, set against the same view of the Queensboro bridge as Manhattan, where Aaron sees through Bobby in a way that surprises them both. These are scenes worth lingering over because we can sense the romantic tension, whereas the more comic scenes – flirting or otherwise – would benefit from a snappier approach.
Aside from the central relationship, there are supporting characters and situations that pad out the runtime. When Bobby meets with his fellow curators, they vie for attention in the LGBTQIA+ museum, saying their particular identity has been ignored the most, a perhaps unintentional call back to the “front of the line” scene from PCU. Bowen Yang makes a memorable appearance as an ultra-rich museum donor, one whose ideas lead to some delayed punchlines. All these ideas are tastefully presented, at least within the confines of romantic comedy, as if Eichner thinks a gay romcom means he must play it safe elsewhere. Now that Bros is out of the way, here’s hoping that Eichner can soon write – maybe even direct – another movie about gays and gay culture that stings with recognition and insight that’s lurking beneath the low-stakes and ambling tension of his first effort.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
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