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 ...
Mel Daluzyan was, at one time, a national treasure to the people of Armenia when in 2006 he became the first female from the country to win a medal in the World Weightlifting championships. Having been born with higher levels of testosterone than an average woman, Mel had a noted advantage over his competitors. He would continue to see further success until the 2012 Olympics when he was unable to set a total. Mel now has a girlfriend Lili and when the threats become too much in a conservative society, he seeks refuge in Netherlands. As time moves by, Lilit feels the pressure of not only leaving her family and friends, but supporting her boyfriend while the cameras follow her everywhere. When they attend couples therapy, she seems to take it more seriously than Mel. The documentary focuses as much on their relationship as a couple as well. In fact it is mostly about that. In the end we see Mel gets top surgery and after few days of recovery finds courage to start strength training again.
Mel is a love story about a man’s love for his sport and his partner, and the film never settles for an easy solution for either. This documentary doesn't go too deep into what it means being trans, how should they life their life or something else. His trainer and his nation refused to accept it. We see far-right marches for “traditional values”.The difficult decision is made to start a new life in the Netherlands. This is an immigration story, and a sporting story, and partly a love story, though the strains of moving away from your homeland eventually take their toll. As Mel becomes more comfortable in their identity in the Netherlands, his relationship takes on the very different different kinds of traditions of modern masculinity; emotional constipation, women’s agency taking second place to men’s control and ambition. It’s a fascinating dichotomy and Mel’s partner Lilli is in many ways just as interesting a figure, in her roles as therapist, caregiver, and number one fan of a former Armenian hero. I don't know what I was expecting but somehow based on what I had read in the summary of this doc, v/s what I saw, it felt quite underwhelming. The good part if we have seen lots of content on trans women but extremely few on trans men.(4.5/10)
Comments