{"id":90795,"date":"2022-10-09T18:51:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T01:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=90795"},"modified":"2022-10-09T18:51:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T01:51:06","slug":"the-trouble-with-bros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2022\/10\/09\/the-trouble-with-bros\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Bros"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Come closer \u2013 I want to share a secret with you.&nbsp; Don\u2019t tell anyone I told you, but everyone who is funny wants to be pretty, and everyone who is pretty wants to be funny.&nbsp; The second part isn\u2019t always true \u2013 because if you\u2019re pretty, you probably don\u2019t care if you\u2019re funny.&nbsp; And then there\u2019s <strong><em>Bros<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 which is definitely funny, but not always pretty.&nbsp; I think <strong>Billy Eichner <\/strong>is wildly talented and outrageously funny.&nbsp; He is, in essence, the film\u2019s biggest asset\u2026and biggest liability.&nbsp; An industry insider told me that for a theatrically released rom-com to work, the lead has to be a big name or fuckable.&nbsp; \u201cAnd nobody considers Billy Eichner fuckable,\u201d continued the source.&nbsp; And I don\u2019t say that as a bad thing.&nbsp; I am probably not considered \u201cfuckable\u201d \u2013 certainly not for a wide opening (with the exception of some Jewish holidays).&nbsp; As a performer, you simply have to know your brand.&nbsp; Take <strong>Kathy Griffin<\/strong>.&nbsp; She\u2019s hysterically funny.&nbsp; And, at times, not bad to look at.&nbsp; But she\u2019s not going to be cast as the lead in a rom-com.&nbsp; The best friend?&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; The caustic sidekick?&nbsp; Sure.&nbsp; A romantic lead?&nbsp; Nope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say <em>Bros<\/em> isn\u2019t funny or entertaining or appealing.&nbsp; It is all of those things \u2013 but first you\u2019ve got to get people to buy a ticket.&nbsp; And the marketing campaign didn\u2019t help.&nbsp; Billy spent most of his interviews talking about how historic it was \u2013 a major theatrically released film with a gay lead and an entirely gay cast.&nbsp; Alas, that doesn\u2019t sell tickets.&nbsp; <strong>Harvey Fierstein <\/strong>echoed this point.&nbsp; \u201cIs this a history lesson or a movie?&nbsp; I didn\u2019t think it was smart.\u201d&nbsp; It\u2019s been noted that Eichner has made his name by not being particularly likeable.&nbsp; Again, not a bad thing.&nbsp; He\u2019s done very well with this persona \u2013 everyone loves a bitchy queen.&nbsp; Especially one as quick-witted as Billy.&nbsp; When the film opened, the gays showed up.&nbsp; Like all rom-coms, it gave average people hope that a <strong>Luke Macfarlane <\/strong>would fall for them!&nbsp; But here\u2019s the $5 million question (which is what the film brought in opening weekend) \u2013 how many of them thought, \u201cWhere can I find me a Billy Eichner?\u201d&nbsp; Hands?&nbsp; I rest my case.&nbsp; I predict it will do HUGE numbers on streaming \u2013 much to Eichner\u2019s chagrin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Come closer \u2013 I want to share a secret with you.&nbsp; Don\u2019t tell anyone I told you, but everyone who is funny wants to be pretty, and everyone who is pretty wants to be funny.&nbsp; The second part isn\u2019t always true \u2013 because if you\u2019re pretty, you probably don\u2019t care if you\u2019re funny.&nbsp; And then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90804,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90795\/revisions\/90804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}