I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” and the Halloween reboot “Hocus Pocus 2.”
I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” the creepy psychological horror film “Smile” and the Halloween reboot “Hocus Pocus 2.”
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to talk about the Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” the creepy psychological horror film “Smile” and the Halloween reboot “Hocus Pocus 2.”
Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to swipe left! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” and the creepy psychological horror film “Smile.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” the creepy psychological horror film “Smile” and the Halloween reboot “Hocus Pocus 2.”
I join NewsTalk 1010 host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ2+ rom com “Bros,” the Vietnam story “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” and the creepy psychological horror film “Smile.”
“I’m not the person to write a romcom,” says Billy Eichner as the acerbic Bobby in “Bros,” the first major studio LGBTQ+ rom-com to play exclusively in theatres.
It’s a meta line in a movie that is both subversive and cliched. Star, co-writer and producer Eichner has melded frank sexuality with rom con conventions to create a funny, sincere movie that kicks the celluloid closet door wide open.
Eichner, the former host of the guerilla-style talk show “Billy on the Street,” plays Bobby, a gay, commitment-adverse podcaster. “I’m like whatever happened to Evan Hanson,” he says.
For Bobby random and anonymous Grindr hook-ups are a way of life until he spots handsome Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) in a club. At first, they appear to be polar opposites. “I don’t think he’s my type,” says Bobby. “He’s like a gay Tom Brady.”
But soon their mutual fear of commitment brings is the glue that bonds them. “Maybe we can be emotionally unavailable together,” Bobby says.
The confirmed bachelor who meets his partner is a standard rom com set-up. “My whole life, I prided myself on being self-reliant,” says Bobby, “but this *bleeper* has gotten into my head.”
But this story about the difficulty of dating is given a facelift by a meta joke about writing a gay rom com and the addition of steroids, thruples, a hat shaped like the Stonewall Inn and extensive use of Grindr.
Eichner layers this story of self-acceptance and love-at-first-sight with laugh-out-loud jokes, an unexpectedly caustic cameo from Debra Messing and heartfelt observational humor. It embraces the innate vulnerability and complexity of Aaron and Bobby’s exploration of masculinity and queerness without forgetting the funny.
But just as it makes you laugh, Eichner subverts the form with some more introspective moments. As a gay man with aspirations to chronicle his community, Bobby has a long, earnest monologue about waiting for the world to catch up with him.
“Bros” is a queer rom com; a subversive, new, crowd-pleasing take on a Hollywood staple.
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewTalk 1010’s The Nightside. Here Richard talks to Billy Eichner, co-star of the new, photo-realistic remake of “The Lion King.”