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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 ...

New Queer Visions - Men from the Boys

A compilation of short films exploring first love, revenge, new beginnings and more are unwrapped in this exciting collection from first-time directors from Portugal, Taiwan, Belgium, the UK and the USA. This collection, as expected is a very mixed bag of short films. None of the films really stood out for me.

CIGANO (Portugal): Wealthy young Sebastian finds out he has a flat tyre and ends up accepting help from a Gypsy passer-by. When Sebastian offers to give him a ride home, their expected destination is not what it seems. I am not sure what was the gay connection here.

TALKING TO MY MOTHER (USA): A young Asian man is trapped in a culture clash where traditions stunt his quest for personal happiness. He has a boyfriend but is expected to marry a girl who also is a close friend. The film shows the struggle to open up to his mother with the truth but maybe its too late now.

DAWN (USA): On an evening commute, Tye detects racism from another passenger's glance. In revenge, he decides to follow and confront the man. But things will clash when Tye will find a connection with his assaultee.

SPILT MILK (UK): An unconventional and highly moving love story between two teens leading up to the night of their prom as they begin to understand the differences and similarities of love, sex and gender and sexuality.

DINNER CONFESSION (Taiwan): In the hilarious and sweet 'Dinner Confession', Che is having dinner with his mom, but all of a sudden, she takes out Che's secret magazine and starts to question him about it. However, she is interrupted by the unexpected visit of Che's close friend, Chun-Hao, who is actually his lover.

PITTSBURGH (USA): An intimate, emotionally turbulent yet occasionally light-hearted look at a young deaf man's relationship with his boyfriend, who isn't quite ready to come out of the closet. Wonderful!

KISS ME SOFTLY (Belgium): 17-year-old Jasper lives in a small town. Jasper finds it hard to come to terms with his father’s career and also struggles with the problems of adolescence, but eventually he musters up the courage to be true to himself and those around him in this heartwarming coming of age tale.

Comments

Hedgehog said…
Have you review any filipino short film? Haven’t seen even one.
Golu said…
I am sure I have. Cant remember any off the top of my head but in my various posts, there are easily about 500 short films reviewed, so I have to think that there must be some Filipino shorts there as well.
Hedgehog said…
Haven’t seen any short filipino film, only full length films in your review maybe there isn’t any good pinoy gay short.
Golu said…
Quite possible !

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