It wasn’t Billy on the Street but Billy Eichner on the Strip at this year’s edition of CinemaCon, as he wowed the exhibitor crowd with clips from his upcoming rom-com “Bros.” The film has been heralded as the first studio romantic comedy to feature an entirely LGBTQ+ cast, and the studio was not afraid to sing (or in Eichner’s case shout) praises.
Eichner was in Las Vegas to introduce “the most exciting thing to happen in Caesar’s Palace since Adele refunds.” And he was astonished that we got two movies about a “talking hedgehog” before a film with a wholly gay cast. But he said that while it provides opportunities for underrepresented voices, it still is an entertaining film that can sell tickets. (“You don’t think lesbians love Raisinets?”)
“It’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s really true. Representation matters,” Eichner said. “It isn’t about gay people suffering tragedy,” adding that instead the film is about how hard it is to find someone “tolerable” in this world.
“Bros” stars Eichner alongside co-lead Luke Macfarlane in a comedy directed by Nicholas Stoller, and it tells the story of two men hopefully, maybe, stumbling their way toward love, that is if they’re not too busy.
The trailer elaborated on that logline by showing Eichner as a podcast host who is asked to write his own rom-com about a gay man, poking fun at the idea of what Hollywood thinks a gay movie is.
“Am I going to get buttf—ed by Jason Momoa while we worry about a volcano,” Eichner’s character says in the hilarious but also raunchy first look. And there’s a lot more where that came from. “Gay sex was more fun when straight people were uncomfortable with it,” he adds.
Also among the “Bros” cast are TS Madison, Miss Lawrence, Symone, Guillermo Diaz, Guy Branum, Jim Rash, Harvey Fierstein and Bowen Yang.
