ReelBob: ‘Bros’ ★★★½
By Bob Bloom
“Bros” is a raucous and moving rom-com that offers equal dollops of laughs and love.
The LGBTQ+ feature, starring Billy Eichner — who cowrote the story with director Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Neighbors,” “Neighbors 2,” “The Five-Year Engagement”) — is a smart and sexy movie about embracing the right partner, commitment and trust.
Eichner portrays Bobby, a force in the LGBTQ+ community because of his podcast, “The 11th Brick.”
Bobby is 40, single, self-reliant — and prefers one-night stands with gay men he meets on Tinder.
He has a small group of friends and his advocacy about all things gay reaches 11 on a scale of 10.
Bobby recently was named director of the nation’s first LGBTQ+ museum scheduled to open in New York whenever adequate funding can be secured.
When Bobby spots Aaron on a crowded gay-club dance floor, his life changes. They make eye contact and eventually start talking.
Bobby doesn’t talk as much as he spews out whatever comes into his mind. He and Aaron chat for a few minutes, then Aaron disappears, only to reappear several minutes later. He seems cool and relaxed, the very opposite of the semi-neurotic Bobby.
“Bros” features all the familiar conventions of the genre — a cute meet, passion and sex, indecision about moving forward, fear of commitment and acceptance — all told through a gay perspective.
Eichner and Stoller’s script details how the LGBTQ+ community is not a monolithic culture; each group, be it gay men, lesbians, bisexual individuals and trans people, have agendas that sometimes conflict with other of the cultures.
The movie’s depiction of gay people as complicated and imperfect with foibles, hopes and fears — no different from members of the straight community — is a point of view that has been missing or ignored from mainstream movies for much too long.
And while these discussions border on satire, Eichner and Stoller’s dialogue lets them flow naturally without making them too overtly political or strident.
The main focus of “Bros” is the on-again, off-again relationship between Bobby and Aaron. It is sweet, funny and sexy. Luke Macfarlane’s Aaron is definitely eye candy. He is more reserved and conventional than Bobby, who cannot understand why Aaron is even attracted to him.
The script is littered with gay pop-culture references, as well as a hilarious cameos, especially one by Debra Messing, that will have you laughing loudly.
Eichner’s Billy is boisterous, profane, very opinionated and vulnerable — covering his self-consciousness with a sharp and witty bravado that belies his compassion and sentimentality.
Macfarlane’s Aaron is affable and cheery, hiding his insight and intelligence behind a ripped physique.
The third act features the usual rom-com bump in the road that derails love, but by the end of this 115-minute movie, all is right with the world, and Bobby and Aaron face the future hand-in-hand.
After all, love is a force of nature that always triumphs.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.
BROS
3½ stars out of 4
(R), language, strong sexual content, partial nudity, drug use