The Big Picture · Review · Top Five · Interview
September 30, 2022/ 88 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins review Bros, count down their five favorite comedies of the century, and Sean sits down with co-writer and director Nicholas Stoller.
15 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘Bros’the first wide-release studio gay rom-com
Billy Eichner plays a podcaster and LGBTQ-museum curator falling for a stiff Hallmark-handsome lawyer (Luke Macfarlane). Amanda calls it a knowing, updated romantic comedy that works; Sean found it more affecting as drama than as comedy, and both agree it runs about 15 minutes long. Nick Stoller directs, Eichner co-writes.
Amanda's Top Five 21st-Century ComediesNo. 1 first
No. 1. A great script line for line, and it reset how high-school movies and women-led comedies talk.
The one she's seen most; whole chunks of dialogue have leaked into her real speech.
Her favorite of the Apatow run: a movie about boys, not men, more comfortable with its feelings than the rest.
Holds up completely; she argues it has a smarter take on Marilyn Monroe than Blonde.
The most recent pick on either list. Lord and Miller remake the action-comedy and high-school movie at once, with Hill and Tatum at a peak.
Sean's Top Five 21st-Century ComediesNo. 1 first
No. 1. The first Apatow-McKay-Ferrell fusion; laugh for laugh, moment for moment, he calls it the best.
A last-minute pivot off In the Loop: he wanted a Christopher Guest movie, and Fred Willard is the best part of it.
Martin McDonagh's hitman road-trip comedy with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, back on his mind ahead of The Banshees of Inisherin.
His way to represent the Coens; Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand make it the one that makes him laugh out loud most. Shot next to his old Brooklyn Heights apartment.
A deliberate cheat, tied at No. 5. A movie about a depressed guy that also puts him in Hawaii with Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell; directed by the episode's guest.
The other half of the No. 5 tie. Ferrell and John C. Reilly play grown men forced to become brothers, a psychotic premise that was largely invented on the day.
In conversation
Five years in the making. Stoller cast Eichner in Neighbors and Friends From College, saw a room die laughing, and built a vehicle around him. He says his movies all start as dramas; this one just sits longer, without a joke, in Billy's beach monologue.
His pick for the last great thing he saw. As a Miami native he rates it and Magic Mike as the two films that best capture Florida.
The other movie he says nails how humid and lush-but-crappy Florida looks.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Rom-com touchstones You've Got MailWhen Harry Met SallySweet Home AlabamaSomething's Gotta Give
The podcaster-lead run VengeanceGhostbusters: AfterlifeGodzilla vs. KongDon't Worry Darling
Queer film history Love! Valour! Compassion!Brokeback Mountain
Comic-persona vehicles TrainwreckThe King of Staten IslandThe 40-Year-Old VirginThe Hangover
More Stoller NeighborsThe Five-Year EngagementGet Him to the GreekStorksCaptain Underpants: The First Epic MovieThe MuppetsThe Lion King
Honorable mentions The TripWedding CrashersJackass: The MovieWet Hot American SummerHot FuzzEverybody Wants Some!!A Serious ManLady BirdBridesmaidsGame NightSnatchBoratBring It OnGirls Trip2 Days in ParisWalk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
In passing The Last DuelThe Big ShortRaising ArizonaThe Hudsucker ProxyHail, Caesar!In the LoopThe Banshees of InisherinHome AloneDie HardBoogie NightsPulp FictionMen in Black 3BlondeThor: RagnarokSpider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseHeathersAvatar
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Billy on the StreetSex and the CityAnd Just Like That...Friends From CollegeSeveranceUndeclaredPlatonicMarried... with ChildrenFlight of the Conchords
Web shorts The Landlord
Podcasts Just Like UsThe Rewatchables
Ads Netflix FIFA World CupBoar's HeadCarvanaStorm energy drinkQuaker