Coming out of the same studio that gave us RuPaul's Drag Race, and stacked with a whole crew of former contestants, Stop! That! Train! plays like RuPaul basically taking a bow for the entire franchise she's built. It's not really a gay film in the traditional sense, but with so many drag stars from Ru's shows popping up alongside a few cameos from well known out gay actors, I figured it earns a spot on this blog anyway. The whole thing is completely over the top, packed with GenZ slang, loud flashy visuals, and humor that's constantly winking at you knowing how ridiculous it is. Going in you'd assume it's meant to be a laugh riot, and a lot of critics online seem to be eating it up, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I've never really been someone who vibes with campy silly stuff like this, so honestly my reaction doesn't surprise me one bit. The setup follows Tess and DeeDee, two low level stewardesses who sneak onto the fancy Glamazonian E...
Finally I get to see a decent film after a series of trashy gay films. At least this film had a message, a theme, a meaning and emotions behind it. It was not just mish mash of hot men having random sex and trying to bring out some erratic story to big screen. This film tells us the real life story of Pedro, a young AIDs activist who lost his life to the disease at the age of 22.
Pedro, a young Latin guy is diagnosed with HIV at the age of 17. Instead of sulking, he makes a courageous decision to dedicate ret of his life speaking at various events, college etc about HIV and try to create awareness among people. In such a time, MTV asked him to feature in their reality show "The Real World", so that people can know the real Pedro. It i during this phase that he meets the love of his life whom he ends up marrying. Slowly Pedro's health start deteriorating and even before the show could go on air, he is hospitalized. WHile in hospital, he gets so popular for his work he is been doing that he actually gets a call from then President Clinton appreciating all the work he has done. The movie just then focuses on his family, his lover and how they all cope up with his declining health and his ultimate death on the same day as the last episode of the show was aired.
The acting by the lead characters was very good but the narration of the film became a little confusing at some point. They tried to realistically portray how reality TV is show but that actually was just adding to all the confusion. I think the film would have been more affective had they made it a documentary style with real life interviews of eople associated with Pedro's life. More ficus should also have given to all the work that he had done for the community rathr than just talking about it and showing merely his personal life. Acting wise I think there was good chemistry between all lead characters. My favorites were Pedro and his sister.
Watch it because it will make you aware of what not to do in life. (6.5/10)
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