The 52: Bros

 From June 2023 to June 2024 I'll be watching a lgbtqia+ film each week and coming back here with my thoughts, feelings and plenty of hopes we aren't met with the "kill your gays" trope. I call this The 52.

Truth be told, the only reason I finished watching Bros after the first ten minutes was because it was sunday night and I hadn’t watched my lgbtqia+ film for the week. Does it come out with some utter banger quotes? Yes! Is it a good film? Ehhhh…. no.

Image credit to Universal

And a part of me thinks maybe there’s joy in that? This is one of, if not the first (look, as much as we love Mamma Mia, until we get a Harry Bright film it’s just not the queer rep we’re talking about) major motion picture LGBTQIA+ romance release. It even came to my local cinema and I’m not even close to a major city. So is it kind of brilliant to just have an average, run of the mill film that happens to feature a gay couple in the starring role? It… it kinda is. This was big news for the lgbtqia+ community and while I hoped for so, so much more from Bros, I’m still incredibly proud and joyful that we got this- and one day we might be able to look back and say “ah, yeah, it wasn’t brilliant but it was a first and look how far we’ve come since.”

I didn’t particularly like Bobby, the main character… no, scratch that. I actively disliked Bobby. He’s self important, he’s awful, like actively an awful person, and he’s cruel because it seems to make him feel better about his life, a life in which he has wealth, a passion project coming to fruition and gets to be as angry as he wants on his popular podcast. I’m not sure if this was meant to be playing into the “sassy gays” archetype, but damn it missed. Bobby is just an arse and while Aaron has plenty of faults (terrible communication, terrible communication, he’s a cheater, and he asks his boyfriend to be “quieter” around his family) I liked him farrrrrr more than Bobby. They felt like a strange match and while I did find the two had chemistry, and Aaron did bring out good in Bobby… I strongly feel that our main character should have worked on himself without needing another person around to make him less of a shitty git.

And, spoiler here, Bros does, unfortunately, use one of my most “exit the film, run out of the room, have a cup of tea and breathe deeply” tropes: cheating! I. Just. Hate. Cheating. Can’t do it. It infuriates me. Because Hollywood always seems to think a last minute “but I love you” is all it takes for everything to be OK and, ah, yeah. I take issue with that.

The film often references straight actors playing lgbtqia+ characters (and winning awards for it), which I appreciated a lot and, you know, was pretty surprised made it into the final cut. But then- and I ~know~ this is symbolism (will any of these reviews not have me going on about symbolism? Let’s hope!) but wow, it annoyed me when they had Amy Schumer as Eleanor Roosevelt and whoever as whoever, ect ect. Pitch it as an idea in film, like they did, and then SCRAP IT. Because this is a lgbtqia+ history museum, not a chance for more straight actors to step into this rare, rare thing, a queer film, and pick up a few extra roles. It just felt so tasteless.

All in all, I was incredibly excited for Bros and for the first ten minutes I felt like I was watching a character being performatively stupid, just so the audience could understand what polyamory might look like and the struggle the bisexual community faces and not feel stupid themselves - because if the gay lead didn’t get it, neither should they. Peppered with plenty of actually incredible quotes, I spent the rest of the film focusing far more on my crocheting than the often painful plot going on before my eyes.

Like things shorter? Follow me on Letterboxd and see my Bros review.