This Hindi movie is a pretty straightforward slice-of-life story that tries to give a modern look at what it's like to be a single, professional gay man. It dives into how he understands who he is, the chances he missed out on, and the personal choices he’s made along the way. The director used three parallel timelines to tell the story, which honestly didn't make much sense to me. While the core idea was actually pretty interesting, I really feel like this would have worked way better as a short film considering the point it was trying to make. Still, it wasn't a bad watch. The plot centers on Rachit, a city professional, and his friend Shikhar as they hang out for an evening. Rachit is a polished, urban guy, while Shikhar has more of a "small-town" rustic vibe, and you can really see the contrast between them when they talk. As the night goes on, Rachit starts thinking back to some old memories from a long time ago. He remembers being an intern after college in ...
Broke Straight Boys is a reality-based docu-series that explores the world of "Gay for Pay", a term used to describe when straight men do gay porn for money. The show explores the dynamic relationships between the owner of BluMedia, Mark Erickson, his business staff and the young men who choose to do gay porn to supplement their income by performing for an adult website. Now call this a reality show or a documentary series, bit with 8 episodes of about 25 minute each, to see the studio’s inner workings while munching down on popcorn and slurping soda.
The series introduces us to their online platform models, in particular Kaden, Paul, Jimmy, Sergio, its CEO Mark Erickson, house mom Sabrina and COO Shannon. These models comes for an extended weekend to live together run a mansion where relationships, work ethics, house rules and what's expected of their jobs is gonna be scrutinized. The eight-part show dissects the logic behind why these young male models have chosen a profession they wouldn’t actively seek, sexually, in the outside world, from their point of arrival to hanging out and getting wasted, to leaving after their two-week stay is up. The adult performers, aged between 18 and 25, are a likeable bunch that seem to, for the most part, all get along. They each share with the viewer their most personal and intimate workings and detail their troubled beginnings, their volatile relationships and a few of the models even introduce their families into the mix. There are episodes, of a boy fighting with his girlfriend, or another one trying to get a girlfriend who is almost scandalized to hear the truth about his work, some of the boys have broken house rules several times and eventually two supposedly straight boys falling for each other.
As much as this was interestingly informative, I also found myself bored after sometime. The director and COO tell us that porn films are lot more choreographed than you think they are; and that made me wonder how much choreographed and planned was this whole series, because some of the conversations and anger and drama didn't look real. But I guess we all are aware that no reality show is really show. While the show continuously warns the viewer that the up-and-coming footage will feature content of a graphic nature, the show is considerably tame and only provides minimal gratuitous nudity. You think you will get to see something sexy, naughty but what you are given is guys hanging out, getting tested and sharing memories of their beginnings, struggles of the trade and how quickly you can turn a buck if you’re willing to leave your soul at the door. (4/10)

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