This movie has already made history, and is the funniest thing in cinema right now

No Such Men is the first gay romantic comedy produced and distributed by one of the major studios, but it has much more to it than that: a clever script, great jokes, witty criticism and great acting performances.

All of these manage to refresh a battered genre, and get deep into the heart.

4.5 stars

Ben Biron Brauda

06/10/2022

Thursday, October 6, 2022, 12:02 p.m

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Star rating for movies - 4.5 stars (photo: photo processing, .)

There are no such men (Photo: Tulip Entertainment)

Few films make Hollywood history before they even hit theaters.

"Bros" or in its embarrassing Hebrew name - "there are no such men", belongs to this limited group.

The film released this past weekend in Israel and the rest of the world is the first gay romantic comedy produced and distributed by one of the major studios - Universal Studios in this case. It is not the first gay or LGBT film to be released under the auspices of a major studio, but even "Brokeback Mountain" was released under An independent and higher quality brand of Universal.

In the post-corona era, where profitability is more important than ever, the expression of trust received by the film's writers Billy Eichner (who also stars) and Nicholas Stoller (who also directs), and producer Judd Apatow ("40-year-old virgin", "Superbad") - is really not taken for granted .

While the collaboration between the duo Apatow and Stoler has already produced several hits that were liked by the audience and critics alike ("Take it like a man", "Neighbors"), the name of Billy Eichner is known mainly to TV fans and has not yet stood the test of the audience in the cinema.

The one who became famous for his neurotic humor in the sketch series "Billy on the street" and his role in the series "Gardens and Landscape Department", went on to mark himself as a queer icon thanks to his role in the black comedy "Difficult People" - one of the best series you probably haven't seen - and an appearance in two seasons of "American Horror Story" ".

Add to all this the feeling that the romantic comedy genre has been around for many years and mainly encourages drinking games in which you can guess the next sentence that is going to be said, and it seems that the task before "Bros" fits the title Mission Impossible.

Well, how fun to be pleasantly surprised!

For almost two hours and literally from its first seconds, the first gay romantic comedy simply gives you a headache.

"Bros" is indeed an LGBT movie in every way - director Stoller and producer Apatow are about the only straight people involved in the project - but it appeals to all audiences and trust me: it is the funniest movie showing in theaters these days. As with any good romantic comedy, the question is Not what is going to happen to our heroes, but how it is going to happen to them - and even if it follows all the rules of the genre, "Bros" still manages to innovate, be original and even exciting.

At the center of the film is Bobby Leiber (Eichner), a 40-year-old podcast presenter who has never been in a relationship but has made quite a few flings.

Bobby states that he is really not interested in a relationship and would rather invest his energies in a successful career (including the "White Gay Cisgender Man of the Year" award he wins at the beginning of the film and pokes fun at Eichner's own privilege), and his group of friends.

To prove how successful he is, he even receives a career opportunity that cannot be refused: to head the board of directors of the first history museum of the LGBTQ+ community.

His life changes when he goes out to celebrate at a launch party for a new app ("Zelweger" an app for men who want to talk about Hollywood stars) and meets Aron (Luke MacFarlane, "Brothers and Sisters") - a muscular man his age who walks around shirtless and exudes excessive self-confidence.

Unlike Bobby, Aron really hates his job and dreams of becoming a chocolatier.

What the two have in common is the fear of commitment,

There are no such men (Photo: Tulip Entertainment)

""Bros is indeed a romantic comedy about falling in love between two men, but it is definitely not a film only about gays.

Although the film's protagonists are a pair of white, cisgender men - the definition of people who feel a match between their gender identity and their gender vocation - Eichner and Stoler's script gives space to almost all the groups and shades that make up the LGBT spectrum. On paper, it may sound as tedious as a course in gender, But in practice, thanks to a script with a sequence of successful jokes one after the other and excellent performances by all the supporting actors - it works. In interviews that preceded the film's release, Eichner and Stoler explained that they decided to cast in the film only actors and actresses who belong to the LGBTQ community, not only in the roles of Proud characters, so even the minority of straight roles in the film are played by proud actors and actresses.

The diversity is particularly evident in the team that makes up the board of directors of the LGBTQ museum that Bobby directs, and consists of a trans woman (TS Madison), a bisexual man (Jim Rush), a lesbian (Dot-Marie Jones), a queer woman (Eve Lindley) and a man Binary (Miss Lawrence). The attempts of Bobby and the members of the committee to reach an agreement on the contents of the museum are a foregone failure when each member of the community tries to make his voice louder. This is another notable advantage of the film: although it Often stinging the general straight society, he makes sure to laugh and also sting the community itself with smart and accurate jokes, which manage to laugh without offending.

In general, Eichner and Stoller's script manages to be smartly funny and constantly provide original insights.

Another topic that "Bros" often deals with is the huge gap between the acceptance of the LGBTQ community today among the general society and the situation just a few decades ago. When Bobby hears from his friend Tina (Monica Raymond, an out-of-the-closet lesbian who plays a straight woman here), that two-thirds of the circle of her son identifying as non-binary, he shouts: "We grew up on AIDS and they grew up on 'Gali'" - a sentence so true and so funny.

And indeed, it's amazing to remember that until a few years ago, every heroine of a romantic comedy was equipped with the character of the gay sidekick to lighten the atmosphere, and today two gay men play each other's romantic object in a major Hollywood film.

In fact, MacFarlane's casting as the lead role of Aron is almost a political statement: The handsome Canadian actor was marked as a big promise when he starred in ABC's primetime drama Brothers and Sisters, but his coming out of the closet in 2008 led to a significant slowdown in his career, which has continued mostly in lead roles In the TV movies of the Hallmark network, which itself receives quite a few stings here.

Alongside him, the filmmakers also chose to cast two actors who came out of the closet many years ago, at a time when the act was much less safe for a career in Hollywood - Harvey Fierstein and Amanda Beers.

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There are no such men (Photo: Tulip Entertainment)

Even after cleaning the queer and historical sides from "Bros", we are still left with an excellent romantic comedy, one that hangs on high poles like "You have a message" with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, a film that is even quoted here, and manages to live up to their standards.

This happens thanks to many moments of intimacy, which are usually spared us in the genre.

As you know, the procedure is a guy meets a girl, they fall in love and then they can't be together until finally they are.

Here we get a deep look into the small human moments that make us both fall in love with each other and loathe each other.

And none of this would have worked without the chemistry between Eichner and MacFlan being so successful and convincing.

So we agreed that a romantic comedy does not aim to redefine the rules, so you have no reason to expect surprises here either.

What's more, "Bros" has another original message that it's important to leave to its viewers - to LGBT people and straight people alike. Contrary to the popular slogan "Love is Love" which declares that all loves are equal and therefore equality is deserved, the protagonist of the film wants to make it clear that "Love is not Love" Bobby/Eichner wants to say that every relationship has its own legalities and not everything that works for straight people should necessarily be applied to gay couples (and vice versa).

And so, without you expecting it, "Bros" will manage to enter deep into your heart and mind, will make you appreciate Reinventing the romantic comedy genre, hold your stomach with laughter and most of all want to see it again to enjoy all that fun. No matter where you are on the continuum, this movie is totally worth the visit to the cinema.

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