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 ...
Brash and cocky, Oliver enters an empty bar asking if someone could buy him a pint? Sitting at the bar nursing his beer is Lukas, who wants none of the entitled fratboy energy this loser is giving off. What Oliver doesn't know is that before he ended up drinking alone on Christmas, Lukas came dreadfully close to jumping off a bridge (which we find out much later). The two men happen to meet again in a bus a short while later. Oliver suggests that the two hang out. Lukas agrees but makes clear that he is gay. Each is saddled with his own demons. Lukas, the gay man from Germany, struggles with his acting career, while Oliver juggles singing aspirations and a failing nightclub. The whole film is about the duo hanging out and slowly opening up about their past, their fears and future plans. We don't know about Oliver's sexuality clearly, although the two end up kissing in the middle of night. Regardless of whether Oliver and Lukas' bond is strictly platonic or whether it could ignite sexual heat, these two feel good together.
The film is laced with the many lengthy conversations between Lukas and Oliver unfolding primarily in dully functional repetitive shot/reverse shots. The lighting is flat and the writing lacks depth of any kind. The two actors share a good chemistry, but I felt also cheated thinking this film is gonna be a queer love story, but it was nothing like that. The two hold hands and there is another kiss towards the end, but that's about it. Honestly besides Lukas being gay, there is really no hint of his sexuality at any point. We also get a 16 year old teenager aded to the group for a while but that also goes nowhere. Overall, I fettle film is extremely uninteresting, too dialogue heavy an don't sure where it was headed. Maybe it's about trying tomato connections, but what's the point if audiences can't wait for the film to end. The two actors are charming and good looking but that can take you only so far when the script itself doesn't have much to offer in the first place. (3/10)
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