Bros Review: LGBTQ+ Romantic Comedy Goes Mainstream
Nicholas Stoller, a well-known comedy director, previously directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the Neighbors movies, and The Five-Year Engagement. He has also written for or produced films including Trainwreck, The Muppets, and Undeclared. Eichner and Stoller collaborated on the Bros script, fusing Stoller's mastery of comedic timing with Eichner's signature edge and piercing humour. With a structure that largely revolves upon bobby and Aaron's relationship experiencing successes and failures, Bros doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel. Although this is an intentional choice, the rom-com template still works as subversion as the writing team offers an unflinching and endearing examination of LGBT relationships.
In Bros, Billy Eichner's (a prominent writer and podcaster) character bobby Lieber (now the curator of the National Museum of LGBTQ+ history and Culture) is followed. He relishes being a self-sufficient single man and his lack of responsibility (so that he is never let down by the homosexual dating scene). That is, until bobby meets Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), a meathead estate lawyer who rejects Bobby's own clichés while still sharing his contempt for vulnerability and monogamy. Aaron is unlike Bobby's stereotype of a meathead estate attorney. The two strike up a connection despite their particular quirks and romantic anxieties, and as their friendship deepens, bobby and Aaron are forced to face the fears, embarrassments, and regrets that have previously hindered them from developing wholesome relationships.
In light of this, Bros is more than just a gay rom-com; it's a sincere examination (and unashamed celebration) of the countless ways that people today express and experience love, and it pays tribute to the countless souls who made it possible to do so openly, many of whom didn't live long enough to witness it. In fact, Bobby's own struggles with his place in the LGBTQ+ community as a cisgender white gay man in a society where sexism, racial stereotypes, body dysmorphia, and gender identity produce additional challenges for his friends to overcome that even he cannot fully understand lead to one of Bros' most perceptive and self-aware points.
In the end, Bros stays very true to its romantic comedy sources, and viewers will surely be able to predict upcoming plot beats in advance. However, in this instance, a well-known plot serves merely to emphasise how special the story is. Eichner and Stoller use the framework of their romantic comedy to contrast and thoughtfully examine bobby and Aaron's highs, lows, and self-discoveries.