I'm Officially Sick of Bromance!

We’ve long known that some straight men are in love with themselves. Now they’re making movies about straight men falling in love with each other – platonically, of course.

In fact, that’s almost all they’re making movies about. At least that’s what most film comedies seem to be about these days.

I Love You, Man, the new movie about a buddy-less man in search of a best male friend, is just the latest in a long string of comedies about heterosexual male bonding: Superbad, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, Hitch, Grilled, Wild Hogs, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Tropic Thunder, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Blades of Glory, Wedding Crashers, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Then there are the movie comedies that sort of pretend to be about a guy falling in love with a woman, but are really about overgrown male adolescents and their slacker buddies finally learning to grow the hell up (or not): Knocked up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and You, Me, and Dupree.

Heterosexual male bonding is a fine topic for a movie. But does it have to come at the exclusion of everything else?

I remember when teen comedies were about straight guys desperately trying to have sex with girls. Now they barely bother with the girls. The credit lists on these movies are almost always same: the male lead around whom everything revolves, four or so quirky, interesting male supporting roles … and the incredibly boring “girlfriend” role, usually written as the one-dimensional surrogate “adult” surrounded by all the fun, cool, Peter Pan-like men.

I didn’t think it was possible for women to be more peripheral than they were in Porky’s and American Pie, but somehow Hollywood pulled it off. Think about this: they actually eliminated women from love stories – and managed to do it in such a way that it’s not “gay” either.

Sure enough, the one gay-themed movie in this group, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, barely bothered with actual gay people. 

Impressive, isn’t it?

(In fairness, some of these movies do feature supporting gay characters, including, apparently, I Love You, Man). 

Sacha Baron Cohen as gay racecar driver Jean Girard in Talladega Nights

In a way, the straight-men-as-the-center-of-universe is nothing new in film. In the 80s and 90s, we had to endure an endless string of “buddy” movies: two men, usually opposites, learning to work together. The “bromance” might not have been quite as obvious, but it was still an important part of movies like Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours, Running Scared, The Blues Brothers, The Last Boy Scout, Twins, Stake Out, Dragonheart, Die Hard, Beverly Hills Cop, Tango and Cash, and Men in Black.