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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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Barrio Boy

By Golu
I dont know why, but I had expectations from this film but it ended up being a little underwhelming. I felt like a lot of characters were not developed properly and there were likely some time jumps which were not really explained properly. Regardless, this story of a Latino barber in a macho world, trying to come to terms with his sexuality during a hot and sweaty summer in Brooklyn, makes for an overall average watch.

The landscape of Brooklyn is quickly changing and we meet Quique, a Nuyorican barber navigating his life. One day he sees an attractive Irish man on the street and feels attracted to him. We get to know him better, where he lives with his family and sometimes hooks up with guys online since he is DL. He has a decent group of friends but all wrapped up in the bullshit of macho-ism. One day, the Irish guy Kevin ends up helping Quique's mom with groceries and Quique is surprised to find him at his home. Anyway, soon a nice friendship develops between the two and they start hanging out fueling rumors. Only one of his cousins understand that and is supportive. But Quique's pursuit of love and self-acceptance becomes a complex odyssey through layers of sexuality, family dynamics, friendship, race, and class. He likes Kevin an they have great chemistry but somehow he cannot accepts own sexuality thereby snubbing him off multiple times. Kevin tries his best but he eventually gets beaten by thugs, he has had enough and he leaves the town. The film ends on a positive note a year later, where we see Quique getting more comfortable with his sexuality.

As I mentioned before, we have seen stories like this is a closet gay man trying to come with his sexuality but not confident, mostly because he doesn't want his friends to find out and that is ok. But at least, give a little newer perspective. Nothing much changes in terms of that here. Brooklyn and its changing landscape is featured but never discussed in forefront. Also, as I mentioned it feels very disjointed at times. Scenes suddenly come out of nowhere, especially the scenes where Quique's friends, when they individually meet Kevin act as if they have known each other forever. Meanwhile as audience we are never shown if they ever even met. Even the way Kevin and Quique's relationship is developed, you don't feel that much of a chemistry between the two. This film about the "barrio boy" falling in love with the Irishman but losing him in the most stupid way possible is just too generic. It could have been so much better, especially when you have an extremely gorgeous actor playing the title role and he has a beautiful smile to die for. Also what was up with random side stories of Quique going for audition, or Kevin sleeping with a girl and random stuff like that. It was just not a cohesively written script. (4.5/10)

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