Instead of Ragging on Film Bros, Embrace Your Inner Film Diva

The Film Bro has become an invasive species. These pests have soured a whole slew of film lovers, turning the cinematic conversation straight towards toxicity. Instead of simply being an annoying nuisance, like a fly, their condescending attitude towards movies has mutated and become infectious. The Film Bros’ tendency to bludgeon people over the head with uniform, unwaveringly bland opinions has crept its way into the bloodstream of so many moviegoers. If we want to have productive conversations about the movies we love, we have got to put an end to all of it.

Though the idea of a “Film Bro” is widespread on social media, here’s a bit of an explainer if you’re in need of an intro OR a refresher: a Film Bro is, per reliable source Urban Dictionary, someone “who views themself as a huge film nerd, while having mostly surface level knowledge of movies.” Film social media site Letterboxd has a variety of lists of films that qualify as Film Bro movies: Pulp Fiction, GoodFellas, Taxi Driver, to name a few. Scorsese lovers and Tarantino enthusiasts are often Film Bros, too. Earlier this week, though, a TikTok about roasting Film Bros made the rounds, naming entirely different types of movies associated with the brand. A new game is afoot.

The goal of this new philosophy — an approach which has already been viewed over 150K times on Twitter (and drove FilmBro TikTokers to report this video so many times that user Keara “Super Keara” Sullivan was forced to delete it) — is simple: Stick it to the Film Bro, sow fear in the heart of the white man. The strategy: Say you dislike certain films just in an attempt to piss them off. While the conversation started out with big hitters from white men directors — like Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas — this has become too easy. Now, in order to anger a Film Bro, one should say that they didn’t understand Roma or that they prefer Disney movies to Studio Ghibli. This is a joke, surely. But if this new brand of Film Bro truly champions Roma over the white savior film Green Book, if they enjoy the charming animation of Studio Ghibli, I think I’d rather just agree with them rather than remove my own spine by saying they’re wrong.

The state of the Film Bro is a question in and of itself: they began as dark film lovers, Tarantino diehards, but now they’re fans of gentler movies like Roma and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Some suggest they’re on team Scorsese, others team Marvel. The term “Film Bro” has become convoluted and contradictory, but that’s beyond the point. People will have encounters with Film Bros in all shapes and sizes, and the dilemma has become less about each and every Film Bro’s personal taste and more about the way we respond to them.

Instead of getting under a Film Bro’s skin, an arduous task with little-to-no reward in store, we should all be earnest and unapologetic about the movies we like. There is no need to bend our preferences as to skew away from a certain stereotype of filmgoer. You like Parasite? Scream it from the rooftops, no matter how popular it already is. You want everyone to watch Fight Club because you love that plot twist? Be a diva about it — make everyone watch it with you. Who cares that it’s a Film Bro film? To love a movie is cool, in my opinion, much cooler than stepping on someone’s toes to prove a point. You enjoy reading the theories behind confusing movies, like those in the Greek Weird Wave or virtually anything in David Lynch’s filmography? By all means, read away. And give insight, humbly, to those who will listen.

This goes for any and all movies, frankly, a concept that expands beyond those select few in the Film Bro realm. In fact, you should probably be even louder about the movies you — and only you — love. Scream about unknown masterpieces. Be confident about the fact that you enjoyed a movie that others didn’t. There is something so terrifying, so thrilling, so brilliant about saying: “I like this movie and I don’t care what anyone says.”

After all, isn’t it better to like a movie than to not? We call films “entertainment” for a reason — they’re meant to entertain us. When they do, it feels great, doesn’t it? If someone enjoys a movie when we don’t, perhaps we should stop bludgeoning them about the flaws and simply let them be entertained — Film Bros included. I propose we all become less obsessed with roasting Film Bros and more besotted by films themselves. In other words, it’s high time we start becoming and embracing Film Divas: people who love the films we love, unapologetically so. You can still sow fear in the hearts of condescending cinephiles by being so unabashedly obsessed with the movies you love that they don’t know how to argue with you. (Still, I don’t know if the goal should ever be to provoke, when it comes to discussing movies.)

There are people who are condescending about films, no doubt. They are annoying! They make me want to duct tape my own mouth, fearful that I would ever say anything similar. Even when they have the most insightful comments to add about cinema, they can still be quite annoying. They are annoying when they talk over you, they are annoying when they deem their opinion objective, they are annoying when they don’t care to listen to your recommendations.

But a word of advice: The best way to “win” an argument with Film Bros is not to argue with them at all. Don’t give them oxygen, and try watching a movie instead. It can even be Fight Club, for the first or millionth time. Whether you tell anyone or not is up to you.

Where to watch Fight Club