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 ...
American Vagabond is a documentary film about runaway queer youth living in the shadows of the promised city. As interesting as the topic sounds, let me assure you that it is very heartbreaking to watch. Its not the visuals that you see but the story in the background told to us by the protagonist about his journey anyhow he became to be homeless and what happens thereafter is what breaks your heart.
James, barely 18 leaves his hometown forever with his boyfriend Tyler who is a year older to him. His father's constant threat to put Tyler in jail because he had sex with James when he was under 18 is the last straw that prompts him to take this step. With opes in their eyes, the two boys move to San Francisco. But it's no mecca for them. It's expensive and jobs are scarce. The gay men in the Castro look down on the scruffy, penniless, hungry boys. They mostly sleep in Golden Gate Park where they hide from the police with other gay vagabonds. Sometimes they are so hungry that they can't sleep. They refuse people who approach them for food or money in return for sex, but once they are so desperate they do have sex with a man who contacts them on the Internet -- for fifty dollars. Because of all this situation, as expected the relationship between James and Tyler suffers. They separate and James goes back home. We then see James serving time in prison, since he had sex with a minor. As the film ends, he is serving a three-year sentence in state prison. The only positive aspect is that James' mother cares about him a great deal now, and his sweet letters from jail have even changed his father, who now weeps for him.
From the production quality perspective adjust the various aspects of film making, I'd rate this documentary very low but the choice of subject is something that deserves full marks. The documentary lacks texture, fitness, is very unstructured and even unsophisticated. We just follow these two guys while trying to make a place for themselves in the city and struggle to survive, but the background story narrated by James is what keeps the proceedings active. The story is heartbreaking and the fact that you are watching someone up, close and personal dealing with that in real time feels immoral. There is also the moral question of how you can film people in dire distress and not help them but we would never know what was the arrangement between the boys and the film crew. The film claims that one out of four young people who come out to their parents are kicked out of the house and that "20 to 40 percent" of homeless youth in the US may be part of a sexual minority, which I find totally believable. This hurt to watch, especially when thinking about the fact that millions of people live this way. We all know about the issue, but watching it in a film like this makes it real and very very uncomfortable to watch, especially when it doesn't even show a tiniest ray of hope. (5.5/10)
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