This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
L.I.E. is the coming of age story of a boy who must quickly develop resiliency to cope with the loss of the things closest to him; his mother to the L.I.E., his father to the criminal justice system, and his best friend Gary to the lure of California. This story rings true because it's something that happens in the real world all the time, whether people want to admit it or not. The film captures events and emotions that are complex, challenging, and confusing. But does it make up for an interesting viewing, lets see ahead.
Howie belongs to a well affluent family and his father is a lawyer. He alongwith his friend Gary, and a few others have been robbing the expensive houses of their Long Island neighbors just for the excitement of seeing how much they can get away with. Howie clearly doesn't need any money but Gary does. One of their escapades takes them to the house of Big John, a macho ex-marine well known in the neighborhood as a man who likes to have sex with young men. Don't that he carries this reputation but people know about it. This encounter is a turning point for young Howie. Big John finds out that it was Howie with his friends who robbed his house. He confronts the teenager and asks him to visit his house if he wants John to not press charges against him to the cops. Howie and Big John develop a relationship which, while the possibility of man-boy sex is clearly implied, is not threatening or exploitative, but provides Howie with the substitute father-figure he so desperately needs over a period of time.
Howie's feelings are a wide spectrum: confused, repulsed, lonely, defiant, confident, aroused, at times even suicidal. Everything about the film sounds right but for some reasons it just failed to hold my attention. In retrospect, I think it was the pace with which the movie moved. It was a little slow for him. Also, I guess people who have lived a suburban life can more connect with something like this. The story for me was somewhat unbelievable. The ending is a cheap shot. The movie and the ending have so little in common that it's as if the last scene is spliced in from a different film.
The film has got excellent reviews throughout. I must have missed something that everyone else saw. (3/10)
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