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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 ...

Vincent River (French)

This French film is actually a filmed theatrical play and the shortcomings of this are very obvious when you watch it on your TV screen. Its a serious subject, but also a story that I have at least seen twice in other settings. But he treatment here is theatrical which makes a huge difference and not in a good way, especially when all you have is two actors mouthing heavy dialogues for 1.5 hours straight.

A 50-something Anita is packing her bags before leaving her flat. A young, pale and jittery Dave has been following her for days before Anita finally allowing him to enter her home. He introduces himself as the guy who called the police informing him aboutAnita's son's brutal death. There is a cat and mouse game with lot of back and forth, with Anita admitting that her son was found dead in a gay causing park beaten to death in a homophobic attack. Initially struggling with his homosexuality, it comes out that Davey is actually her son's boyfriend and together the recount the horrible truth of the events that unfolded leading to the murder and also what role the deceased man played in their life.

A subject like this should ideally wreck you emotionally and hit you in your heart, but the very bland acting and treatment makes this film seem like its been going on forever and you can't wait for into end. I have never understood the film makers fascination for stretching a story beyond what its needed to. By the time all cards from the deck are laid to the table, as an audience I had stopped caring about any of these people long time back, because at some point they all went in to a self indulgent zone. The play set is very basic with some dark colors that try to set the tone of the story to unfold, but it could have been much better if they had already decided to film it. The actors are strictly ok. This might have worked as a live play but as a film, it fails miserably. (2/10)

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