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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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Shoulder Dance

By Golu
This film had an interesting premise to show us a modern take on friendship and relationship, but the film ultimately falls flat due to an abundance of issues with the story, script, and production of this film. There is a lot of talk talk talk, which really adds nothing to the eventual plot of the film. It's like watching two couples spending a weekend together and hearing to their jibber-jabber with awkward acting which feels very very rehearsed.

Ira and Josh have been a long term gay couple for almost 10 years. Ira is an agent in entertainment world and Josh is wannabe actor and since his career is not doing too well, he has become almost a home carer. Its weekend and they decide to spend it in they holiday home. We get a hint that Josh is not very happy since Ira is always busy and doesn't appreciate the efforts Josh takes to keep things together. This weekend Ira surprises Josh by saying that his childhood best friend Roger will be coming over for a visit. They had been estranged for 24 years and now since his mother just passed away, they reconnected. Josh is confused because he has never heard of this friend. Loud mouthed and touchy feel hot Roger shows up with his girlfriend Lily. Together the two couples eat, drink, smoke, and have drugs over the course of one hour 40 minutes where we wait and wait for something meaningful to happen. It is obvious that Ira had feelings for Roger when they were younger, but he was straight. Eventually during the course of the night, they do get an opportunity to talk about it and Roger kisses Ira, also confessing that if Ira had asked him for sex, he would have done it for Ira since he has always been there. They have sex while Josh and Lily are out partying. Next morning Roger makes Ira understand that Josh really loves him and he should appreciate what he has in life leading Ira to propose to Josh.

Seeing Roger make Lily pressure Ira into taking drugs so Ira could loosen up and be comfortable around Roger was just… it was creepy as heck. And then Roger proceeded to use Ira being high and all up in his feelings to hook up with him. Like, WTF?!!! The weird thing is that both Lily and Josh were completely aware of the vibes between Ira and Roger. And yet they didn’t do anything to try and handle the situation. I don't understand that. The film has toxic traits all over. Both Josh and Lily are the type of people who were okay with ignoring the red flags in a romantic relationship because they prioritized the so-called benefits that came with staying in said relationships. And then there is this friend of Josh, whose character could have been completely eliminated but the duo keep getting in gossip all the time. Coming to acting, as I mentioned before, it didn't seem natural at all. The leads had no chemistry and there was a total lack of emotional bonding between either Ira and Josh or Ira and Roger. In fact, every emotional scene felt stunted and awkward, as if the actors weren’t even sure where in the script and emotional journey these scenes fell. I mean, it was awkward watching those scenes because you wait for something to happen, but literally nothing does till very later. The story moved so slowly, and took multiple of these senseless scenes to make a new point which towards the end we see this repressed feelings that Roger and Ira have had for each other, which is also weird since 24 years is a bloody long time to get over anyone. Also given their age and time they have been apart, some of the undertones that they talk about feels just nit possible. The film drags on forever and really tests your patience. This one can easily be missed. It feels like on of those boring one act stage plays that was then converted to a film keeping all the boredom intact. (3/10)
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