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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu
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 ...
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Borrowed (English/Spanish)

By Golu
Probably inspired by a play or something (since it has only two actors and no one else), I am really not sure behind the purpose of this film. The premise is interesting but man, does the film drag on forever and forever. Even with a duration of less than 90 minutes, the film feels such a drag to watch, despite two good looking actors who do their job well. The screenplay here is a big later and just very unclear on what the message it really is trying to give.

A handsome middle aged man David is preparing dinner for two. His hot younger date Justin, a latin boy, arrives soon. David lives in a huge waterfront house, is a painter and a bit mysterious. The duo seem to have chemistry but Justin stats to feel some warning flags with a raccoon kill and David trying to have Justin pose topless for a portrait. Justin tries to make excuse and leave immediately after dinner but David explicitly forbids that, locks the door, takes Justin's phone and and forces Justin to stay the night in the studio, acting completely normal in the morning, so that he can finish his portrait. But the captive night soon becomes captive days and weeks. They are talking and next thing we see that its been a few days or weeks or whatever where Justin and David share memories of coming out to parents, or in quieter moments of confession David’s estranged son, and the film finds something approaching emotional truth. Justin is still very much a captive under David but have a weird dad/son dynamic going on. David tries to rape/have sex with him a few times but stops seeing his unwillingness. Justin' story of a father not paying attention doesn't match with his teenage random hookups stories with older man and then David has some sob story about his son, a sort of justification for him wanting Justin close to him. To be honest, after a point I didn't care because I was so bored.

What started as a nice little thriller, the film doesn't have any tense moments at all. The way the screenplay handles this abusive captive relationship is fully contrived. I mean, in one scene Just is asked to go to a corner store and get some stuff, so clearly he has more than plenty of opportunities to run way a and escape but he doesn't and as the film progresses, it even feels he is getting fond of David. We are never clearly told if this is a farce or genuine affection. Because if he is faking it, then he could have had run away multiple times, but if he is genuinely falling for him, then is that a case of Stockholm's syndrome and just a weird abusive relationship. At one point he does try to leave the house but it still doesn’t match up with his behavior from earlier scenes. Towards the end David crying tells some sob story of his son and how he got estranged and then very randomly lets Justin free. By this point, I was so bored that I didn't care and just wanted the film to end because I was sick of random rumblings, portrait making sessions, cooking and eating scenes etc. I could care less about them hanging out in various parts of the never ending huge mansion like place and just talking. Its a shame because the leads were charming, their performances were good but a really shoddy screenplay just spoiled everything. I really didn't get any message out of the film because neither did it provide entertainment and nor it had a statement to make on relationships, lost love, abuse or redemption. I could be wring and may have missed something, but this film was a disappointment. (4/10)
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