Bros film review — a Hollywood gay romcom that subverts expectations – Financial Times

Bros arrives in UK cinemas on a downbeat note. Trailed as a landmark, a high-profile gay romcom from a Hollywood studio (Universal), it promptly bombed at last month’s US box office. The long story of why might involve the risks of trailblazing and the uncertain place of big screen comedy in the age of streaming. But a lot also comes down to the scale of the task set for himself by writer and star Billy Eichner, a comic actor of serious ambition. (The movie is produced by veteran Judd Apatow.)

Because for Bros, it is not enough to be a romantic comedy between men released by an industry until lately made nervous by the thought. On screen, Eichner plays Bobby Lieber, an abrasive New York podcaster we might take as lightly autobiographical. As writer, he also sets out to acknowledge and subvert the tropes of romcoms past, to ask out loud whether the movie should seek a straight audience and, crucially, to be funny in the process. Remarkably, it mostly works. The frantic self-awareness comes folded into a barrage of gags about sex, politics and pop culture, with reference to Bert and Ernie, digs at The Power of the Dog, and much else besides.

If the movie has the energy of solo stand-up, that makes sense too. Lieber is a one-man show as well; how he might become part of a duo without diluting himself is the core of the story. (The foil is the likeable Luke Macfarlane.) Ultimately, the box-office bust may have had less to do with dated cultural norms than a still more enduring tradition: the fate of Hollywood films too smart for their own commercial good.

★★★★☆

In UK cinemas from October 28