Judd Apatow knows how to make gifted comedians into movie stars. He did with Amy Schumer and “Trainwreck,” and again with Pete Davidson and “The King of Staten Island.”

Now Apatow has produced Billy Eichner’s “Bros,” the first big studio broad gay comedy with an all LGBTQ cast that’s a rom com first. Hilarious and well made, “Bros” will also be an education for a lot of people.

Safe to say that at this point, nothing in “Bros” is an actual shock as Billy’s character of Bobby gets into a romantic seesaw with Luke McFarlane’s Aaron. Bobby is 40ish, funny, a podcaster and happy to be single (he has sex with guys he meets on apps). He doesn’t consider himself a player. Aaron is a hunk who spends a lot of time in the gym and admits to being boring.

Bobby is also, in the subplot, helping to launch an LGBTQ+ Museum in Manhattan. So needs the help of Aaron a probate and estates lawyer, to help raise the money.

That’s the basic set up. Along the way we meet a variety of LGBTQ+ folks, all extremely amusing and nothing at all like characters you’ve seen in past rom coms. But in many ways they are exactly the same, supporting the main players as they try to find themselves and each other.

The screenplay is peppered with Eichner’s pungent punchlines and one liners, set up jokes that land squarely each time. Director Nicholas Stoller and Apatow know how to construct a sturdy foundation so that Eichner can spout off on gender politics, etc and still keep the story moving briskly forward. The audience tonight at the Toronto Film Festival ate the whole thing up, and that’s what Universal Pictures is aiming for when “Bros” opens wide on September 30th.

Oh, yes: Garth Brooks may become a gay icon once “Bros” is released. McFarlane’s Aaron is a huge country music fan, especially Brooks’ music. This figures into the story when Bobby writes a song and performs it for him. The song, “Love is Not Love,” will likely be a Best Song nominee at next winter’s Oscars, sung by Eichner. Brooks would be smart to get in on this ASAP — a duet, maybe?

Spit Take Number 2: After all the scandals, rumors, and carrying on, Warner Bros. can sing “Don’t Worry Baby” about “Don’t Worry Darling.”

Harry Styles fans have made the movies’ preview IMAX show on September 19th the fastest selling IMAX show of all time.

They sold out 21 of the 100 locations on the first day of sales, a total of 13,000 tickets. The sold out locations are in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and more. More than 15 additional locations are above 50% sold out.

The IMAX LIve show is drawing like crazy because Harry will appear LIVE from New York hooked up to all locations. Meantime, a red carpet premiere will be going on in the Big Apple. Screaming girls will set sound records in IMAX locales. Will anyone even hear Dave Karger’s Questions? Or Harry’s answers? (Olivia Wilde will be on stage with him, too, which should rev up the audience into a frenzy.)

It’s Harry’s House, you see, and we are all just guests!

Casting Styles over Shia LaBeouf, for whatever reason, will be the saving grace for this movie– at least the first weekend when it opens that Thursday night. All his fans will be going in One Direction — to movie theaters.

After all the crazy hype from Telluride and Venice, it was starting to feel like a strange film season.

But tonight the Toronto Film Festival opened with two winners, beautifully made, consistent films that may bear fruit for real come awards season.

The first one was “The Swimmers,” based on a real life story of two sisters, Syrian immigrants, who make a hugely harrowing escape to Berlin. They are each trained swimmers, one of them Olympics-level, and quite young (teens). This was going to be released by Focus Features, but moved during the pandemic to Netflix.

Directed by Sally El Hosaini, with incredible cinematography from Christopher Ross, “The Swimmers” is partly in English, and partly in Arabic with subtitles but it is not a “foreign film.” The excellent Working Title Productions made it. I really think this film will play to the same audience that loved “CODA.” The whole saga of the sisters’ journey, plus the rousing competition at the Rio Olympics, should be an enormous crowd pleaser. Plus there’s the unusual casting of two Lebanese sisters, actresses, as the Syrian sisters who now live in Berlin.

“The Swimmers” was followed immediately next door at the gorgeous Royal Alexandra Theater by “The Inspection,” written and directed by a male director named Elegance Bratton. Very much in the mode of “Moonlight.” this feature could turn out to be a sensation. It’s Bratton’s real life story as gay Black man whose mother could not accept him. He was going nowhere, homeless, and then joined the Marines to turn his life around. Jeremy Pope, the hot Tony double Tony nominee from “Ain’t Too Proud” and “Choir Boy,” plays Bratton like a star. Boom! There are many standouts here including veteran actor Bokeem Woodbine who nearly steals the film as the sergeant who runs boot camp.

But the real surprise is Gabrielle Union, a great beauty who until now has been relegated to pleasant if ineffectual comedies. She’s also married to NBA star Dwayne Wade. Stripped of make up, Union makes a splash a la Mo’Nique or Mariah Carey did in “Precious.” This woman has been acting since 1993, and yet this will be called her breakthrough. At the Q&A following the movie I asked her how she came to this moment working in a dramatic film. She replied, “No one asked me before.” They will now!

Both movies were met his normal applause, very enthusiastic, lasting a minute or so.

Between the spitting the feuding, who can keep up with “Don’t Worry Darling”?

Now comes word that there will be a big IMAX screening and Q&A on September 19th across the country. Fans can buy tickets to see the movie in advance of its September 23 rd opening. A Q&A will follow via satellite. The press release says Olivia Wilde will be there with cast including Harry Styles.

But guess who’s not participating?

Florence Pugh, natch, she’s busy shooting “Dune Two” and dodging all this stuff like it’s COVID-20.

And Chris Pine, the alleged spittee, who looked zoned out at the Venice press conference, and still hasn’t recovered. Pine has no actual excuse except that he’s not into all this, and who can blame him?

Dave Karger of TCM will be the moderator. You can buy tickets here.