Ryan Muphy's latest Netflix productionThe Boys in the Band is one of those films that really manages to capture the spirit of the play on which it is based. The entire action of the film takes place on a single night in 1969, when a group of gay male friends gather together for a birthday party.

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There’s quite a lot of snark and cruelty in the play, but there’s also a fundamental sense of humanity, a sense that these men are struggling to survive in a world that doesn’t really accept them. While some of the characters are quite likable, others are actually quite unpleasant. 

Alan

Alan Boys in the Band

At first glance, it seems like Alan is a nice enough guy. After all, he seems to hold Michael in quite a bit of esteem. However, it’s soon revealed that this is because he doesn’t realize that Michael is gay. Once that comes to life, he shows a very different side of his personality, and he’s downright mean to many of them men at the party, including and especially Emory. He thus becomes quite an unpleasant character, even if the audience is led at times to feel somewhat sorry for him.

Michael

Michael Boys in the Band

Even though Michael- played by Jim Parsons- is the one hosting the party, he soon reveals that there’s a very brittle and bitter part of himself that he keeps only thinly veiled. He’s very funny, and there’s no question that he’s also quite charming when he wants to be.

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However, he’s also very cruel, and he seems to take an especial delight in forcing each of his friends to call up the one person that they have always loved. The film makes it pretty clear that this stems from his own sense of inadequacy and guilt, but even so he’s not a very likable person.

Harold

Harold Boys in the band

Harold is the person whose birthday is being celebrated, and Zachary Quinto plays this role to the hilt. Harold is as unpleasant as Michael in his own way but, unlike his friend, he really does seem to recognize this fact about himself. There are also a few moments in the film where he seems to have a genuine sense of compassion, as when he refuses to participate in Michael’s little drunken game with the telephone and urges him to let Alan go home rather than continuing to torment and harangue him. 

Larry

Larry Boys in the Band

Larry is part of a couple, and it’s clear from the very beginning that he and Hank have a lot of trouble in their relationship. While Hank wants to be monogamous as he was in his marriage with his wife, Larry very much wants an open relationship. While he does eventually admit to Hank that he loves him in his own way, for much of the film he seems to go out of his way to be as unpleasant and snarky as possible to everyone, including and especially Hank. 

Cowboy

Cowboy Boys in the band

Cowboy- Charlie Carver making a second appearance in a Ryan Murphy production for Netlfix after his role in Ratched-  is the male prostitute that Emory has “purchased” for Harold as a birthday present. During much of the film he doesn’t seem to have much of a personality and, more importantly, he also doesn’t seem terribly bright. This makes him the butt of several jokes that the other men continue to hurl in his direction. Despite the fact that they can be quite cruel to him, he seems to take it in good spirits, and it’s hard not to like him at least a little bit, especially since it takes a special kind of soul to put up with that kind of abuse. 

Hank

Hank Boys in the Band

Hank, the other half of the relationship with Larry, is as different from Larry as it is possible to be. While Larry lives life openly and flamboyantly, Hank seems to instead want a relationship based on the same model as the one that he had with his wife. Nevertheless, he makes it very clear throughout the film that he truly and passionately loves Larry, despite the fact that his partner is so unrelentingly cruel to him. In the end, the two have a bit of a reconciliation, and one can’t help but like Hank for being so willing to stay with Larry despite everything.

Bernard

Bernard Boys in the bad

Played by Michael Benjamin Washington, the second cast member of Ratched to feature in this movie, Bernard is a fussy sort of librarian, but it turns out that he is actually quite kind, gentle, and soulful. Like so many of the other characters, he really puts up with far more of Michael’s nonsense than he should, and he also endures quite a lot of racist teasing from Emory.

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He’s a very likeable character, and the moment in which he calls the man that he loved as a youth is one of the most wrenching in the entire film. It’s just unfortunate that so many of his friends are so unpleasant.

Emory

Emory talking and looking sad in The Boys in the Band

It would be utterly impossible to truly dislike Emory. From the moment that he appears on-screen, it’s clear that he’s one of those people that takes a genuine joy in life. He’s flamboyant, and he doesn’t care who knows about it. He has a few blips in his character--such as the way that he seems so casually racist toward Bernard--but unlike so many of the others, he doesn’t seem to harbor a deep-seated self-loathing. Instead, he seems pretty proud of who he is, and he doesn’t let even Alan or Michael truly intimidate him. 

Donald

Donald Boys in the Band

Donald is probably the most likable character in the entire film, and that’s largely due to the enormous charm and charisma that Matt Bomer brings to the role. He’s one of the few who seems to genuinely understand Michael, and he’s probably a better friend to Michael than he really deserves. In fact, he’s the one who stays with a drunken and depressed Michael at the end of the film, and it’s clear that he really does care for his friend and wants to help him in whatever way he can. 

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