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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

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 ...

Never Met Picasso

Set in mid 90s, this film set in Boston, follows a thirty-year-old gay man who attempts to get his life in order while living with his actress mother. It is a simple coming of age drama, that probably was quite novel for its time back in 96. The story itself is simple, with not much happening and a lot of it can just be watched fast forwarding quite a bit of content, because most of it is around our lead hanging out with queer artists and there is not much from a plot perspective.

Rejected by numerous art schools and lacking romantic prospects, gay guy Andrew's life is going nowhere. He still stays home with his theatre actress mother. HIs close friend is his uncle, an artist and a confidant and is also gay. His closest friend is Lucy who works in the art studio with him and is lesbian but constantly bickers with her girlfriend. Andrew decides to enter a contest in hopes of winning a six month stay in Kenya. But neither of his family thinks it's a good idea. He find out about his uncle's lover from back in the day David. When sudden illness leads to Andrew's uncle's death, he is going through a rough patch. Andrew's friend introduces him to enigmatic Jerry and the duo go through hang out, hook ups and prospect of love. Eventually Andrew doesn't make it through the contest, his love with Jeff is also off and on. 

Honestly, not much happens in the film. It's just a. Bunch of people hanging around, doing things, dealing through with life. The characters are interesting, the ides are fine but the maker doesn't seem to have an ida on how to really execute them. Rather than going deep into character arcs (there was an interesting opportunity where both the mother and his uncle liked the same guy David), instead we see and hear about the gallery crowd and the flamboyant artists living through all of the openings, exhibits and parties that occupy their time. There is no real substance here in the film and can easily be avoided. (3/10)

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