Until last week in a promotional stint for his newest film Bros, it had been five years since Billy Eichner terrorized the sidewalks of New York City for his pop trivia show, Billy on the Street. Trivia might be the formal word for it, but anyone who has seen approximately twenty seconds of an episode will see that it runs on the same diesel fuel as a hurricane. Eichner will more or less ask strangers about celebrities and movies, but the correct answers are not based on objectivity: rather, I’d like to think they are avoidants of the mainstream heteronormative perspective. Diametric to the all-age wholesomeness of Cash Cab, answering that Brad Pitt is an exciting actor to see a movie for will invoke a classic Eichner explosion — a groan and speed-stomping away from the conversation with the camera intact on the flabbergasted unknown.

I can enjoy the show when there are celebrity guest stars running at ground level with Eichner (Julianne Moore reciting her Magnolia monologue for a dollar is a permanent top 3), but the humor is not meant for everyone. When I first saw it on Fuse years ago, I used to think that all of the uncomfortable reactions were part of the “fuck you” energy of the city. Now, I think the show keeps in the moments of inexcusable behavior because it’s aware. Eichner’s 6’3″ woodpecker-inquiry approach has caused strangers to literally run away from him, Nas to decline answering an inappropriate question about Oprah and walking off-camera after winning an empty birdcage, and the Internet rallying behind this stranger who rightfully put him in his place (this clip is provided by Eichner’s official Twitter, which makes it unclear if Eichner is poking fun of his schtick or if he thinks his antics are all in good fun).

For those wondering how Eichner will fare in Hollywood form, the first five minutes of Bros should inform you that little of his identity and humor is compromised. Still in the comfort of the concrete jungle, Eichner plays Bobby Leiber, a 40-year-old single man and podcast host of “Eleventh Brick at Stonewall” (titled after the high probability of when a cis gay man decided to safely step into rebellion). He plays double-dutch with cynicism and criticism for most of his quips, and barely softens his blows when he meets the film’s love interest Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) at a promotional gathering in a club. Aaron is in the Gus Kentworthy league of all-American athlete attractiveness, which becomes a large rift between him and Bobby as they become intimate. Thankfully, Aaron’s assured sexuality tears us away from the usual straight-gay man trauma, but what happens after that? As Fire Island demonstrates how damaging the hierarchy of the gay-elites are within in the community, Bros examines the differences between Aaron and Bobby on a cellular and cultural level.

The film shines best when the humor is sour and negative, which is essentially when Eichner is making fun and is being made fun of. However, I think the film loses steam because it doesn’t work as a romantic comedy. Some issues, such as straight-passing privilege and closeness to the gay-identity, contribute to the movie-length conflict, which is…Bobby being too rude? Andrew Ahn gives space for contemplation in Fire Island, while Nicholas Stoller is given a lot of metaphorical balls to juggle for these characters. On a more unpopular note, I found that the two romantic leads seem weirdly intolerable together, which doesn’t help when these issues aren’t wholly resolved by the end. In a way, this could have been the intention: it is impossible to promise eternal love to the audience because of a huge romantic act and a night of sharing childhood dreams.

Pop culture usage is hefty here, so much so that I began to wonder the type of universe we’re in when actors star as fictional characters while their peers cameo as their actual selves (it is unclear to me why Dot-Marie Jones plays a fictional character while Debra Messing can be Debra Messing, when it makes complete sense to me that Jones could have played herself as a board member of the movie’s LGBTQ+ National Museum). Eichner’s haughty scorn shown in Billy on the Street is measured and straightened for a premeditated punchline. It is the sort of contemporary humor that today’s SNL would have been proud to write (even the two separate foursomes felt Peacock-sterilized), but like the relationship, the film’s longevity is up in the air.

Bros
2022
dir. Nicholas Stoller
115 min.

Now playing at theaters everywhere (though the Hassle recommends the Somerville or your local independent multiplex)