‘Bros’ Toronto Review: Billy Eichner’s History-Making Gay Romcom Also Happens To Be Damn Funny
The major studio romcom is back with a flourish, but it took Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller to prove the format still works, even if this time it is two gay men who are the ones who find love against all odds.Although Bros is indeed making history as the first major studio film with an all LGBTQ principal cast, and the first to star and be co-written by an openly gay man , ultimately what it has to say about how hard it is to find the perfect someone to spend your life with is truly universal.
Don’t get me wrong. Much of the humor in Bros comes from situations and attitudes specific to gay culture, but you don’t have to be gay to laugh out loud at most of it.It must be seen in a theatre as I did tonight with a rollicking full house at the film’s World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I can tell you I didn’t realize how long it has been that I have sat in a movie theatre and laughed out loud this much.
Bros is the funniest film of the year – and one of the most heartfelt. I had forgotten that studios used to make comedies like this all the time.
Maybe Bros can bring them back.It shouldn’t come as a surprise since this isn’t the first rodeo for Stoller whose comedy credits include Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five Year Engagement and others, and Producer Judd Apatow whose massive list of credits include The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, The Big Sick, Trainwreck and so many more.
