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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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100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection (Documentary)

By Golu
This charming documentary, features a selection of the 3,200 vintage photographs of male-male couples that Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell have collected over time. The images were published in their 2020 book, “Loving.” The photos, which were likely made between 1850-1950 (some are tintypes; many are undated) are lovely portraits of male intimacy - from a full embrace to subtler poses with fingers intertwined, or feet discretely touching, as well as more effusive affections as from a photo booth, or sharing an umbrella, and even kissing.

The documentary starts with how this couple ended up with this collection. The two made it a routine to visit local antique stores after church on Sundays. During one chance encounter, the pair discovered an old photograph of two men in an affectionate pose during a time it wasn’t exactly accepted. This started Nini and Treadwell on a path to finding more images like that. Since then, they’ve amassed a collection of what has become hundreds of vintage pictures of gay couples in love. Between interviews with Nini and Treadwell and montages of their collection, we take an eye-opening trip to the past. Organized by levels of shown affection, we start with the seemingly platonic pictures of men standing together.  They sweetly reveal what's written on the back of the photos: "two Sad Sacks 1945," "me and Harvey 1929," and "more than palsies." The film makers try to go deeper in some of the pictures and the story behind it as best as they can, and its moments like this the documentary stands out and shines and begins to attain depth.

The collection is definitely archival and for the history books because I bet you that nothing like this exists. The photographs are well curated, and the film makers peppers each section with quotes about love from gay writers. But strictly as watching a documentary, with even less than an hour of run time; I personally was done watching the photos and quotes. I think I may enjoyed their book 'Loving' more than watching the film. Nonetheless, this is an incredible and an important collection and kudos to the couple Nini and Treadwell for shining of doing something like this. (4/10)
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