Last night I attended a screening of I Love You, Man (to be released in March), starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. The premise is that Rudd's character -- newly-engaged (and impossibly nebbishy) real-estate broker Peter Klaven, who is utterly lacking in the male friend department -- is in desperate need of finding a best man for his pending nuptials. This dilemma incites an almost Sisyphean quest to win dude friendships, which includes Peter going on a number of "man dates."
I don't want to ruin it (though you can probably guess what happens), so I won't say much more other than I Love you, Man is being marketed as the latest incarnation of the "bromance" movie genre, though it -- rather surprisingly -- isn't a part of Judd Apatow's bromantic movie empire (save a familiar confluence of actors). I nevertheless enjoyed the movie, sustaining more than a few LOL moments; however, its played-out plotline left me wondering: How long will the BroCo (bromantic comedy) genre continue to linger?
In the world of television, that incorrigible frat boy, Brody Jenner, has his own show, the prosaically-titled Bromance, centered around this very topic, while the dudes from Entourage are still "hugging it out," as they say. Further, now that the bromantic-comedy-of-the-summer, Pineapple Express, was just released on DVD (and Blu-ray), soon enough, I gather, you'll be hearing about the coolest new Friday night pastime: Chips, dips and James Franco. And finally, Judd Apatow has a whole slew of movies slated to come out in the next year -- including the already buzzing Funny People, starring Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler -- the bulk of which undoubtedly smack of "bromance." So, it would seem, there's no sign of the "dudes platonically loving dudes" genre fading...or not in the recent future anyway.
As I've implied, it's not like I hate these movies -- I actually think most of them are pretty darn funny. But, in addition to being hackneyed, BroCos can't really claim to offer any modicum of boundary-busting cinema...which brings me to the one of the best movies I've seen in the past month, I Love You Phillip Morris (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival), which tells the (true) story of two gay men who fall in love in prison, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. Instead of going for cheap laughs about two straight men sharing a love of smoking pot, two men actually fall in love in this movie, like for real.
So let's pray for the BroCo's quick and painless death, shall we, and champion films that actually (and whole-heartedly) tackle the nuances of what it really means to be in a same-sex relationship.