I'm Officially Sick of Bromance!

I think its safe for me to say that I've given up on the American movie industry (at least the big budget houses), because what's more depressing than sitting through 20 minutes of previews and see the exact same movie shown 4 or 5 times with different actors?  While I enjoy my horror movies, anything with the smallest romantic theme should not be pursued by these teams of straight male writers.  They're too unsecure with their sexuality to make something that doesn't offend at least one community, and frankly I've had enough of the third grade humor.  What happened to sarcasm, irony, wit?  Do they really think that the American audience is so stupid that they won't be able to get any higher level jokes?  Such a shame that the movie industry is so afraid of everything that they resort to a downward spiral into bankruptcy instead of taking a chance on something different.

 

 

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Chuckles!

I think it's very telling that some of the critics had a much more positive reaction to his films than they do to comedies which are more accepting of gays. Apatow's movies are fantasies for unattractive, middle-aged men. In his films, gays only exist as an insult to shame straight men ("you know how I know you're gay", the word "faggot" being thrown around in Knocked Up). Women are there only to show us how awesome straight men are. The more attractive the woman, the more she exists solely to fawn over the unpleasant slob the movie revolves around.

Those movies have basically told Hollywood and the public that it's perfectly fine to be bigoted, but then, they probably already felt that way.

I do wonder whether Judd Apatow has "decided to make the same movie over and over again" or if it's more the case that he only gets financial backing to write and/or produce the same movie over and over again.

I still have a lot of good will toward the guy due to the sublime Freaks and Geeks, which interestingly had female heterosexual bonding at the heart of its season long arc. I hope some day Apatow has the chance/will to again produce something with a female main character.

all genre pictures are pretty much the same and either you're a fan or you're not. As a woman I'd personally take a buddy pic or action movie(dickflick) over a chickflick or romantic comedy any day. I got burned out on the increasingly unrealistic, and yes very white, upper middle class-- man, appearance and/or shopping obsessed characters years ago.

There are always exceptions for something well written, well made and unconventional.  Every once in a while something kind of original comes along in the genre and if it's popular, Hollywood rides it into the ground, then moves on to the next thing or back to the previous thing.

Would I like to see more diversity, originality and variety in films, of course. Is that likely to happen in mainstream hollywood movie making? No. They go where the proven money is until it's not there anymore. 

 

As for Judd Aptow making the same movie over and over(and no I'm not a hardcore fan--I think his work is okay but not fantastic) maybe that's all he's got. Maybe  he needs to work through this stage to get to the next one--some artist paint the same thing over and over with slight variations until they've gotten it out of their system, or maybe yes, he's in the business to make money and he realizes this is what's selling right now. Or it could be something else entirely.  There's nothing inherently wrong with any of those scenarios. 

 

 

 

You know, I'm not a fan of any of these new bromance movies that I can think of, and the most tolerable one to me was Superbad.  But I can't help but wonder if there's not some progress being made in the evolution of male relationships on screen.

Looking down that list of 80's and 90's buddy comedies/bromances, I found one thing in common - things had to blow up/be shot in order to sell the movies about male bonding.  The ones they're making now are on a much more personal level, and don't need Michael Bay attached to sell a friendship.  Is that progress?  Maybe.  It's one thing to bond guys over the backdrop of imminent death, and another to do it over the stresses of everyday life.  There's an added comfort to the relationship, to me.

I never go an see these bromantic comedies.  But I seldom see a romcom anymore - that genre seemed to die for me along with Meg Ryan's career.  All that said, maybe they could make a bromance where things blow up again?  Sometimes I'd like some explosions without giant robots. 

I'm so with you on the Bromance thing--enough already.

Objections made to Knocked Up are valid but overall I found the film refreshing in that it's about a woman. Superbad is fascinating in that it gets right to the edge where "male bonding" becomes genuine same-sex love and romance (forget the "bro.") So overall he's not without talent. Limited though it may be.

 

This emphasis on straight males is adolescent and annoying in the extreme. They're the desired demgraphic now. But they're fickle. Cause Knowing beat I Love You Man at the box office this weekend.

 

Ultimately I don't care about any of this. I want to see movies with REAL MEN (ie. gay) gettin' it on. 

And on that level Christophe Honore's Les Chansons D'Amour would undoubtedly terrify Apatow. For in its climax the luscious Louis Garrel, still grieving over the sudden loss of his girlfriend Ludivine Sagnier, elects to accept the eager embraces of the babe-a-licious Gregoire LePrince-Ringuet without going into any trauma over whetehr this means he's bi or gay or anything else -- leading to what has become one of my all-time favoirte movie lines: "Love me less, but love me for a long time."

Sometime around Valentine's Day, I was scanning all the heterosexual romance DVDs on display at Safeway or somesuch, and I mentioned to my partner Steve Buscemi's immortal line from "Parting Glances" where he says (paraphrased) "What is it about straight people that they're so narcissistic, and 99% of everything in the world is about them?"

However, I'm also cautious about tarring people too liberally with the generalizations brush.  I'm old enough to have lived through the 80's and the buddy-movie era, and lemma tell ya, there's a BIG difference between then and now.  Yes, you still occasionally encounter unwarrented homophobia in movies, but Apatow and co. (and certainly Kevin Smith) are often much more gay-friendly or downright subversive with gay topics than back in the day.  (OK, I didn't dig Leslie Mann going postal and yelling "faggot" at the doorman in "Knocked Up," but I think the intention of the scene was to indicate how far to the Dark Side she'd gone.)  There was a lengthy Jonah Hill monologue deleted from "Knocked Up" with is on the DVD extras and YouTube, wherein he talks about being "man enough" to watch the love scenes in "Brokeback," and that they should've been MORE explicit; the "You know how I know you're gay?" bit was more of a satire about gay stereotypes.  And I'm glad we're seeing more (straight) male bonding in "Pineapple Express" "Superbad" et all--hell, "Superbad" even had a scene where the heroes (drunkenly) asked why they were afraid to say that they loved each other.  (A lovely moment in "Wedding Crashers," where Vaughn and Wilson matter-of-factly say that they love each other over breakfast.)  If straight men are unafaid to show affection for each other without seeming "gay," that's how homophobia begins to crumble.

Similarly, Ferrell has TOTALLY worked the homoerotic angle in several of his films ("Blades of Glory" and "Talledega Nights"), as did John C. Reilly in the Apatow-penned "Walk Hard."  Sandler has always been hit-or-miss with gay stuff (the gay beer ad from "SNL" and the friends from "Big Daddy" vs. the wildly schizo "Chuck and Larry").  Kevin Smith was one of the first people to call out homophobia as a likely "smokescreen" for being gay in "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma," and had a gay subplot in "Zack and Miri."  Now, are all these guys as enlightened and cool as the folks who gave us "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"?  No, but they're getting there, and the more "outsiders" or indie folks who become filmmakers (including Amy Heckerling's "Clueless," Mike White's "School of Rock," Ben Stiller's "Reality Bites," Angela Robinson's "D.E.B.S." etc.), the more diversity we're going to see.

Oddly, of the movies you listed, two of the ones that enraged me the most were the two "Harold and Kumar" movies.  (Thank God I saw them on cable and didn't pay admission for them.)  Why?  Because they spend both films whining about racism and how people stereotype them, and these are two of the most blatantly homophobic and aggressively offensive characters/films that have come along recently.  So, because they are minority characters, they're allowed to be loudly prejudiced to others? (Not to mention jaw-droppingly sexist; there's no way Kevin Smith, for one, would allow a female character to be rendered as such a two-dimensional joke in his movies.)

A certain chunk of the teenage male audience--the serious troglodytes--hardly even goes to the movies anymore; they're home playing violent videogames (which may also prey on homophobic stereotypes).  The sooner Hollywood realizes that they don't have to pander to this lowest-common-denominator and can make serious money targeting other neglected demographics, the better.  And I hasten to add: when there IS a cool male-male "bromance" film that is also very gay-friendly and non-homophobic--as "I Love You, Man" is--we should give it our support.  I'm so happy I saw "ILYM" on Saturday, and have now praised it to at least three different people.  This is how the world changes, one step at a time.

Did you get a Doctor's note or something? Not defending these movies, some were better than others. Some were just plain lame, gay content or not.  You however are coming off as a bit of a cranky pants.

Nous Sommes Tous Sauvages.

but I am sick of hetero boys (and some girls) thinking they've discovered or invented something new. Male intimacy -- with or without a sexual component -- is as old as time.

Guys have emotions -- and sometimes they share these emotions with other guys. Get over it!

Bromance movies are an interesting phenomenon. Movies, as long as they've been around, have been enormously influential culturally. It's hard to say sometimes whether film follows or reflects culture or leads it at times. So what is driving this bromance phenomenon? Is it that American culture is becoming more accepting of male/male love (sexual and nonsexual) and that is reflected in these movies, or are these films influencing their audience to be more accepting? Perhaps it's a positive feedback loop. At any rate I'm glad for it. It's healthy, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to accept love from and give love to ones friends. It's a breakdown in homophobia. Straight men have had a difficult time expressing or acknowledging love for their friends for fear of being perceived as gay. That paranoia seems to be abating, and that's a wonderful development.

NOT AT ALL MY KIND OF MOVIE!! Whether with gay context or not.   

Of all the movies mentioned so far (I Love You, Man, 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, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Knocked up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, You, Me, and Dupree, Porky’s, American Pie, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, 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) I have seen half of one of the Porky’s (yeaaaars ago), Wedding Crashers, part of The 40-year-Old Virgin, Twins and Tango & Cash (also yeaaars ago). I looooove Paul Rudd, but I will never go see Man, I love You. I have seen trailers of some of the above movies and that alone did NOT make me want to see the movie. I am a sucker for dramas. A good bromance movie though, that is not all silly and popcorn entertainment, but also not a tragedy would be refreshing in my opinion. Isn’t it possible to make a bromance movie that is not a silly comedy? I guess it’s too early.    

 

 

I know Will Ferrell but I have just about NO clue on who Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow are. 

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R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P.

I realize on blogs if you don't write about SOMETHING, it's like the movie Alien - no one knows you're alive even if you scream.

Aptow is overrated. That's a discussion that's also over the blogsphere since last Summer.  I thought 40 Year Old Virgin had a few good moments and it was a cute story but I didn't see what made it special much less popular. I've caught bits and pieces of Pineapple Express and even if Seth Rogan LOOKED like an olympic swimmer, I still wouldn't get his appeal (and I do think Franco is funny - I just didn't find him that funny in PE). These are movies intended for a target and I wouldn't worry yourself about them that much. You'll just get more hair loss that way. 

As others mentioned, bromances are just the buddy movies of the 70s/80s all the way back to say movies like the Sting and Butch and Sundance. It is an improvement to not have these movies involve characters as annoying as say those played by Mel Gibson and that they not have to involve explosions and car races (for the most part).

It's not a big deal.  Relax.  Breathe. 

Dulles Dhirt

When these movies start including Bro-Jobs, I will bring all of my straight guy friends to show them what they are missing by not dating me between girl friends.