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 ...
Neil is an introvert 15 year old, questioning high school freshman. He thinks he might be gay but isin’t sure, although he continues to write steamy fan fiction for his own pleasure. He writes about Vanguard, the brawny, galaxy-hopping hero of a popular sci-fi franchise. When his stories are exposed in class Neil is mortified, but the slightly older, effortlessly cool Julia comes to his defense, who is a fan fiction writer herself on an online “adult” forum. They both become good friends and Neil has someone with whom he feels comfortable with. He feel she is falling in love with Julia. Until Neil grabs attention of Denis thorough the website, who is the site moderator and he invites Neil to present his work at a comic con live-read event. Secrets are revealed there, when it comes out that Neil and Julia both lied about their age, Denis recommends him to be himself. Neil and Julia hook-up but neither knows what it really means and Neil wants to hook up with Denis to explore his queer side. The event doesn’t go as planed and it puts a strain in the relationship of two friends. But at least Neil gains confidence on his writing and he continues to write gay fan fiction on Vanguard.
Was this really a coming-of-age story as the makers portray it to be? I somehow don’t think so. Unless I completely fail to understand the genre of the film. I think ‘Slash’ as a term has a whole different meaning and reference, which , I know I fail to understand. But a film is supposed to be for a wider audience and this is where it fails. Also I think too much focus is given on the adult (specifically homo-erotic) aspect. What happened to good old fan fiction writing? ON a plus side, the production values and the acting by everyone is pretty top-notch. I never had to fast forward the film. But it could easily have been a few minutes shorter or the pace could have been better.
I can see few people liking this film but this was definitely not my kind of cinema. Its not bad, really, but just one-dimensional and superficially uninteresting. (4/10)
Comments