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...
This movie is a desperate wannabe. It wants you to like it so bad that it tries to have a mix of everything possible. But with constraints of actors, time, budget etc it just doesn't live upto all the expectations. Agreed it is a musical but I have seen hundred times better gay musicals. This one just seems to forced in every single department. Bethesda is an adopted Filipina who comes to San Francisco to pursue her performance art, which is inspired by her search for her biological parents. She is lucky to find a commune occupied by a gay man, Windham, who becomes her best friend and with whom she spends a lot of time in a gay nightclub; two lesbians, who have this on off relationship; and a petulant runaway. The film just shows their time spent, their interactions with each other and random singing and dancing thrown away. Bethesda’s agenda is never really explored. Instead we get a rag-bag of tangential sub-stories including her setting up blind dates, getting horrendously drunk, and trying to find a theatre to perform her one-woman show in. To make matters worse, the film ends abruptly. There is no particular story that Perhaps the strongest virtue of the film, a production of the Center for Asian American Media, is the diversity of its characters.
The music is so bad and utterly forgivable except the 'Fag Hag' song, which was kinda funny. Then there was this song, where when the 2 gay men on a blind date realize that they are both bottoms start describing musically, and explicitly, their preferred sexual practices. I couldn't believe it. It was so crass and embarrassing to even watch that song. Fruit Fly unfortunately falls flat on its face even though it’s trying its hardest. Maybe if there was a firmer storyline, more believable and relatable characters.
Save your time. Don't let it go waste like I did. (2/10)
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