In 2022, such a decision can sound surprising but it is happening: Bros is the very first gay rom-com produced by a major American studio. And for this first, Universal jumps in sending an asset, Judd Apatow, the king of schoolboy American comedy (The 40-year-old Virgin, Trainwreck). The latter called in his friend Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors) to make the movie. But the celebrity that gathered all these quality artists is Billy Eichner who signs the script and plays the lead of a cast shining a light on many actors from the LGBT+ community.
Bros is a meta work on the place of gays in the movie industry. And according to the first trailer (available below), he was given free rein to express everything weighing on his heart. The movie opens on October 19, 2022, in French theaters.
Plot:
This is the story of two men whose relationship could potentially, incidentally, turn into a love story. Perhaps. But they are very busy men.
Our review:
Bros is both a meta piece about the place of gays in the history of cinema, and more widely about their invisibilization all along the history, a fun comedy, often below the belt as Judd Apatow's squad knows to make, and a rom-com with a lot of clichés. The mix could make it feel like it is too much, but not at all. Each aspect of the story written by Billy Eichner is skillfully dosed.
Furthermore, no need to say Billy Eichner plays a character named Bobby Leiber - writer too - to realize the movie's autobiographic dimension. This is why, despite the fact this is an over-used rom-com, one cannot help but fin the final pice highly genuine. The character is the author's doppelgänger, and both are as moving as funny.
We end up being moved by this lovely movie that does not just consist of staging love at first sight between two men, but it also carries many necessary messages. For instance, let us remember a fascinating monologue about the difficulty of professional achievement when one is considered as "too gay" by the rest of the world, and a comparaison as hilarious as tragic about the different generations of homosexuals ("Wed had HIV, they had Glee", Eichner says during the movie). Without being pretentious and its falsely simplistic writting, Bros manages to be one of the greatest comedies of October.
