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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

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 ...

West Hollywood Motel

I was given access to screener version of the film by Syndicado, a film and TV distribution company. I have mixed feelings watching this film. Had I seen this film a few years back, I may have thought that this was a feel good funny film but having seen a lot of meaningful cinema of late, I unfortunately can’t say the same about this one. This does not mean it was an awful film but there is nothing special about it either.

As title suggests, the film is set in a motel and focusses on few couples who are spending their time (a couple of days) in this motel. We meet a Venezuelan import trying to make it into movies and longing for companion. A chance encounter where the motel miss up a reservation for another guy could be his chance for companionship. We meet a straight couple who are in town to meet their cousin where the wife overnight develops a penis and the entire day goes in the confusion on what the hell has just happened. Then we have a lesbian relationship. One of the girls is an actress married to a man and is not ready to make any sort of commitment to her partner who is completely devoted to her and also is ok dealing with the fact that she is married. And finally we have a gay couple who have come for a romantic vacation but there is something that’s missing between the relationship. The film focuses on these couples and try to make a story of these individuals.

Let’s analyse the stories. The story of a married straight couple was weird. Also the casting of husband was probably not right. He felt pale in comparison to the very strong performance by the wife. She was fantastic. The lesbian plot was not convincing. There was just no chemistry between them, considering that they are supposed to be together for 2 years. For the gay couple, we didn’t know what was actually missing in their relationship? The younger dude is outgoing while the other one prefers watching movies; so how the hell does everything get right in the end and the extrovert guy has a change of heart. The only good chemistry was in the non-couple of the Venezuelan guy and the stranger. That story itself can be made into a short film which would be very nice. The actors had great chemistry but not a whole lot o focus was given to it. Performance wise, I have to admit that most actors did a pretty darn good job. Usually when I watch low production films, I keep my expectations low but these actors were all good. All they need is some good mentorship and some luck and they can do well.

Thankfully the film is not too long so its not too much of a torture. I think the idea was to make a pretty simple funny movie. They achieved the simple part but it wasn’t really funny. I did not laugh at even a single scene. Overall I would say below average. (4/10)

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