Film

The Brothers Solomon

Two sheltered, aggressively earnest brothers attempt to secure girlfriends and produce a grandchild for their ailing father. It's a gentle comedy built on awkwardness and genuine heart, where the joke is often the brothers' beautiful incompetence rather than cruelty. Lean, affectionate, and specifically for people who find well-meaning disasters endearing.

TMDb rating2.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love well-meaning oddballs whose sincere, clumsy schemes unravel in slow, escalating awkwardness, and you find the brothers' odd-couple chemistry more charming than the jokes themselves.

Skip it if you want sharp, fast-cut comedy, since this one leans on repetitive sketch-like bits and a loose, meandering structure that can feel thin across its ninety-odd minutes.

What it asks of you: Roughly ninety-three minutes of cringe-heavy social discomfort, so you need a real tolerance for secondhand embarrassment and the patience to sit inside it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Napoleon Dynamite2004

A similarly deadpan portrait of social misfits navigating the world with complete sincerity and zero self-awareness. The humor comes from character rather than setup-punchline, and the film's warmth toward its outsiders is palpable.

But It moves at a deliberately glacial pace, and the comedy is so dry it requires patience and a specific tolerance for awkwardness.

Napoleon Dynamite poster

I Love You, Man2009

Paul Rudd and Jason Segel have the same bumbling, heart-on-sleeve energy as the Solomons. It's a comedy about men trying and failing at emotional communication, played with genuine sweetness.

But It's considerably more polished and mainstream, so it lacks the scrappy, homemade quality that gives Brothers Solomon its peculiar charm.

I Love You, Man poster

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby2006

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay create a similar world where confident stupidity and genuine emotion coexist. The supporting cast (including John C. Reilly) commits fully to the bit.

But It's far broader and louder, with a bigger comedic canvas that may feel scattershot compared to the focused earnestness of Brothers Solomon.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Brothers Solomon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

After Hours1985

Both follow a protagonist (or protagonists) whose sincere attempts to navigate social situations result in elaborate chains of well-intentioned disaster, except one is a nightmare and one is a hug.

Martin Scorsese's fever dream about a man spiraling through New York City via a series of bizarre encounters and mishaps. Like Brothers Solomon, it's fundamentally about incompetence and social miscalculation, but played as surrealist noir rather than gentle comedy.

But It's deliberately disorienting, increasingly dark, and designed to make you uncomfortable rather than cozy. The aesthetic is 1980s paranoia, not comedy warmth.

After Hours poster
More like this (7)

Welcome to Collinwood2002

An ensemble comedy about incompetent men attempting a heist with elaborate plans and catastrophic execution. It shares the same affectionate view of lovable failure.

But It's more ensemble-focused and plot-driven, so the character-specific humor is less concentrated than what Brothers Solomon offers.

Welcome to Collinwood poster

Old School2003

Will Ferrell and other earnest performers tackle absurd situations with complete conviction. The humor often pivots on characters' obliviousness to their own unsuitability.

But It's broader, raunchier, and structured around comedy set pieces rather than character observation, which dilutes the specific energy.

Old School poster

The Benchwarmers2006

Rob Schneider and David Spade play well-meaning underdogs attempting to prove themselves in a sport they don't understand. The sweetness-to-humor ratio is similar.

But The execution is notably slighter than Brothers Solomon, with less layered character work and more reliance on surface gags.

The Benchwarmers poster

Blades of Glory2007

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder team up as men utterly convinced of their own appeal while being ostentatiously terrible. The comedy of misplaced confidence runs throughout.

But It's considerably broader and relies on physical comedy and outrageous scenarios rather than the quiet character-based humor of Brothers Solomon.

Blades of Glory poster

Forgetting Sarah Marshall2008

A romantic comedy where the lead male character is genuinely hapless and earnest about his emotional incompetence. It balances humor with real vulnerability.

But It's more conventionally structured as a romance, so the comedy serves a larger plot rather than being the point in itself.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall poster

Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016

Both find their humor in the gap between characters' good intentions and their actual competence, and both refuse to be cynical about people trying, even when they fail.

A New Zealand film about a gruff old man and a foster kid on the run in the bush. It has the same DNA: characters who are fundamentally trying their best, genuine emotional stakes wrapped in comedy, and a view of misfits as fundamentally lovable.

But It's a road movie set in dense wilderness rather than urban dating comedy, and it shifts tone more dramatically toward pathos and action.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople poster

Shoplifters2018

Both are fundamentally about people failing together and how that failure becomes a form of love, but one is comedy and one is tragedy, so watch carefully which you think you're getting.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's film about a ragtag found family committing small crimes together. It shares the central architecture: people bound by mutual incompetence and genuine affection, attempting to navigate life through whatever means available.

But It's a serious, elegiac humanist drama in Japanese with subtitles. Expecting comedy will leave you unprepared for its actual register: melancholy, tender, and heavy with social critique.

Shoplifters poster

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