Fuck Romance, All Hail Bromance
Are you sick of every single movie trying to push a love interest into the plot because they fail to make their film interesting without it? Not because love is bad. Love is cool. Romance can be great. But it’s become the default shortcut, the easy solution when a movie doesn’t trust its story to stand on its own. Action, comedy, drama… somehow it all bends until it fits a couple by the end. Me? I like friendship. Friendship is cool too. Movies about people who stick around, grow together, and matter to each other without everything turning into a romance. And if that sounds refreshing, you’re in the right place.
The Picks
Grumpy man tries to be left alone but keeps accidentally becoming a decent human. The neighborhood refuses to let him self-destruct in peace.
Official synopsis
When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.
Friendship so committed it turns into cardio and mild property damage. Ridiculous, energetic, and surprisingly sincere.
Official synopsis
For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they’ve been playing since the first grade. This year, the game coincides with the wedding of their only undefeated player, which should finally make him an easy target. But he knows they’re coming...and he’s ready.
Honorable Mentions
A movie that straight-up admits adult friendship is hard, weird, and emotional. The romance exists, but the movie knows exactly what it’s about and it’s not the wedding.
Official synopsis
Peter Klaven is a successful real estate agent who, upon getting engaged to the woman of his dreams, Zooey, discovers, to his dismay and chagrin, that he has no male friend close enough to serve as his Best Man. Peter immediately sets out to rectify the situation, embarking on a series of bizarre and awkward "man-dates."
An unlikely friendship forms between a retired widower and an overworked startup CEO. This is a calm, comforting movie about mentorship, mutual respect, and learning from someone who’s lived a little more. No romance driving the plot, just two people making each other’s lives better.
Official synopsis
70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin.