Bros

 

I know Billy Eichner -- one half of the central duo in Nicholas Stoller's Bros -- from the Hulu series Difficult People.

In that show, Eichner played Billy, a similar character to the dyspeptic, hypercritical gay quipster Bobby of Bros. Both characters are a real handful, with Bobby being, in the end, more palatable than the chronically off-putting Billy, though not by much.

The other half of Bros' romantic pairing is Aaron, a handsome estate attorney played by Luke Macfarlane, a familiar featured player on network and cable television (Brothers & Sisters).

As a semi-closeted, circumspect, gym rat whose elusiveness hides an unexpressed desire for greater fulfillment and grounded normalcy, Aaron is yin to Bobby's yang.

Bobby is an unfiltered podcasting gadfly who is also the director of a newly established LGBTQ+ museum on the upper West Side of New York. He's trying to land a big donor so that the museum can open on time but his emotional myopia and lack of graciousness with his board and potential contributors hobble his efforts.

Aaron and Bobby meet cute in a bar, fall into customary casual intimacy and quickly recognize there is more than just physical attraction at work. But, alas, they are so unfamiliar with this territory that their next steps are awkward and confusing.

Stoller and Eichner's screenplay of queer romance is frequently trenchant and hilarious, but it is also loaded with transgressive, paradoxical truths that are universal.

The most emphatic comes three-quarters of the way through the film and is not offered by the irritatingly loquacious Bobby but by the more subdued Aaron: "My story is not your story."

Surprisingly, as spoken this is not as much a declaration of immutable differences as it is an invitation to honest and open exchange.

A timely and needed message for lovers and other strangers.