Billy Eichner’s hit studio comedy Bros is the funniest movie of the year so far, giving audiences an unforgettable theater experience.
I was in Orlando when Hurricane Ian hit. I was in a hotel with hundreds of other people who had either fled from their homes or had had their vacation partially ruined because of the severity of this storm. Once Ian had passed, there was this big sense of relief, but people were still worried about their homes and family members, which brought many others, including myself, to see Bros on a Friday afternoon, to watch something to take their mind off of reality for a little. This brilliant film was able to provide a safe and loving environment for so many people that were going through some of the most stressful days in their lives. I have never been in a theater where a sold out crowd was laughing, crying and leaving a screening on such a high, when I knew so many of them were going through a rough time. Romantic comedies are supposed to be a cute and fun distraction from life, where, at the end of the film, you feel that love that is portrayed from the two lead characters. Since Bros does this and so much more, it is not an exaggeration to say that this film is a modern masterpiece.
Bros, the first studio romantic comedy starring an exclusively LGBTQ+ cast, is about two men who know that they are not relationship people but start hanging out with each other anyways. Even though this is a relatively clichéd plot description, clichéd is one of the last words I would use to describe this film. Bros definitely draws inspiration from many other studio rom coms, but due to the pitch perfect script that both director Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors) and star and co-writer Billy Eichner have crafted, the film could not feel more fresh.
Part of the brilliance of this script is its wonderful engagement with urban LGBTQ+ culture. For people who have either interacted or are a part of this culture, representation on this level has been more than needed throughout film history, but for people who are newly engaging with this community, it’s an introduction that also serves as a beautiful celebration of LGBTQ+ history. Bros knows that, just by being seen, it is making history, and Eichner and Stoller take full advantage of this: Bros is so much more than just a strong return to studio rom-coms, but it’s also a film that discusses what it means to be the first in something so revolutionary.
Continuing with the brilliance of Bros, perhaps the best part of the film as a whole is having one of the major plot points revolve around the presentation of gay masculinity. Echnier’s character, Bobby, comes off as very confident and mainly happy with the way he looks and acts, but as Bros progresses, we see the toll that not having a hypermasculine personality can have on someone’s confidence, particularly while navigating both physical and emotional spaces with someone else. What does it mean to be masculine? How do preconceived notions of masculinity affect how someone views another as attractive? What does it mean to be confident? Bros is able to answer or at least shed some light on these questions in an original and extremely hilarious way.
Speaking of hilarious, this is genuinely one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. There aren’t more than two minutes of silence where you won’t at least chuckle at what is going on in the film. Because of this hilarity, this is as much of an essential theater experience as Avatar, but for completely different reasons. People go see Avatar on the biggest screen possible for the spectacle, but when it comes to Bros, people should go to the theater for the environment. This movie is so funny that, when you see it with a crowd, everyone else will be laughing so hard that it’ll become infectious. Bros creates a safe space where you are free to laugh at and with whoever you want, regardless of the situation, and the feeling you get watching this in a packed theater with other people is the definition of movie magic.
At the end of the day, Bros truly has it all. It’s funny, heartwarming, confident and groundbreaking all at the same time. It’ll leave you feeling refreshed with that happy rom-com feeling that we have come to miss in the last few years, but also inspired, due to the revolutionary representation that we are seeing on the big screen. It’s something that I might not recommend to my parents, but that I will recommend to almost anyone else I meet, because it’s not only the funniest but also the most crowd pleasing movie to have come out this year. All of this would not have been possible without Billy Eichner, who’s a writer, producer, and lead of this film. Bros is a complete showcase of everything he can do, not only playing to all of his strengths as a comedian but also serving as a well rounded tour de force that hits all the emotional beats with precision and the comedic beats with ease, showing that he is a rom-com legend who just needed a platform.
Bros is not a perfect movie: it has some slight pacing issues in the end and an extremely predictable ending. But when you’ll walk out of the theater, that will hardly matter. All that matters is the feeling this film brought me and around a hundred others on the Friday after a devastating hurricane. A feeling that millions of others have felt since this film’s initial release and that millions deserve to feel. Please do yourself a favor and run to see Bros with a crowd as fast as you can: it’s sure to be one of the most memorable theater experiences you’ll ever have.
Bros is now available to watch on digital and on demand.
