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 ...
We meet roommates Isabella, a student, Pedro, a sex worker and Jonata, Pedro’s HIV-positive nephew. Its just around the pandemic's fourth wave, the film moves into the three of them traversing through the city making astute contemplations about the society they live and what the future holds for them, in a Sao Paolo that is bled dry by a memory-easing virus and rampant capitalism. There is no story as such because what we see is the three folks meetings clients of Pedro and other random, terrible equals eccentric, natives in that city leading to some tragic yet funny situations. It's a film that feels more with a lose structure meant to encompass a mood than anything else.
The film falls in the category of what I call parallel and art house cinema, The characters are floating through this strange world that looks like our world but clearly isn't. It's the disorientation of normalcy. The film presents us with a trio of protagonists who are not entirely sure of who they are yet, and are searching for their identities through trial and error, simply venturing out into the world and discovering what works best by interacting with those around them. This makes the more serious conversations embedded in the film even more poignant, since the journey to get to that particular point has been so complex, layered with meaning that can only be drawn from an engaging and insightful understanding of issues surrounding identity within the LGBTQIA+ community, which serves as the foundation for this enthralling film. The intersections between the internal journeys of these characters and broader subjects relating to the queer community, whether it be institutionalized homophobia or the HIV/AIDS crisis, add to the deeply melancholic sensations. This film is definitely not meant for everyone. Personally, there were parts that I enjoyed and others where I couldn't wait for them to end. This one is going to be a very personal choice. I would rate this one strictly average from a general audience point of view. (4/10)
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