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 ...
Mitchell is a successful black man working in corporate industry who has recently ended a disastrous relationship. He swears to be off men, but fate has different plans. He meets Raheim, a hunky, absolutely gorgeous courier guy all of 24 year old and sparks fly immediately. We witness their romance build-up despite repeated warnings by Mitchell's friends that the 'get' rough trade, young guy is just using him and he will end up being heart broken. Raheim ends up meeting friends and family and everyone is smitten by him. But Raheim and Mitchell belong to very different classes. When Mitchell meets Raheim's friends, they don't get along well, since they are more 'rough' and 'punk' and clearly these two aspects of Raheim and Mitchell's life go through conflicts. Things get weird when Raheim introduces him to his son, but Mitchell gives in, but when Raheim raises his hand on him, that is the breaking point for Mitchell. His friends come to him as the savior, but eventually Raheim comes back a few days later apologizing fo this behavior and Mitchell makes it very clear what's ok and what's not ok in a relationship and takes him back.
I was actually quite surprised by the end. Sure, Mitchell stands his ground and explains very clearly to Raheim that it is not ok to physically abuse anyone, but was he so madly in love that he was willing to give him a chance. I guess he was clearly smitten by the very handsome and dropped gorgeous Raheim and ignored all warnings that his friends gave. The whole act of physical abuse could be seen from miles but Mitchell just ignored. The film is unapologetic in its celebration of black gay men. On the surface it is a love story, but it also explores what it means to be black and queer not just in general, but within your own community. While Mitchell is clearly out and proud and belongs to a more upper class status; Raheim’s actions suggest that he is still not accepting of who he is and who he loves. Had the film ended on some other note, I would have vouched for it, but IMO the ending is very problematic. Also the pacing was very off with random edits here and there. There was no reason to stretch this film for almost 2 hours. There were random songs is between that served no purpose. Also introducing the term 'good' was funny and cute the first couple of times but using it like 100 different times was nothing but seriously annoying. The film was good for extremely good looking and hot gorgeous men who also acted well and had good chemistry. Raheim's little son was very adorable and the only reason of voice was Gene, Mitchellll's best friend. As I mentioned before, I wanted to care for the characters and root for them, but the poorly put together and directed film, prevented me from being wholly involved in their life. (4/10)
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