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Stop! That! Train!

By Golu
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...
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Interior. Leather Bar.

By Golu
Now this was an interesting film, if you can call that at all. It is a mix fiction, documentary, feature or you can call it docufiction film as mostly it is mentioned in its promotions. The film stars James Franco and Travis Mathews (also credited as the directors of the film) as themselves working on a film project which reimagines and attempts to recreate the 40 minutes of deleted and lost sexually explicit footage from the controversial 1980 film Cruising starring Al Pacino.

The film starts with the fact that Franco and his Travis are looking to recreate the lost 40 min censored footage from the film. The film follows their process of finding the actors, whats their motivation behind doing this film, a mix of gay and straight actors preparing for the role and this documentary. Everyone is apprehensive, some are doubting, some are questioning while others are condemning. The major focus is on Franco’s friend, an actor, who is trying to make mark of himself and is now being asked to reprise the role of Al Pacino. Very soon we find outfit we will actually not get to witness the 40 minutes of loss footage. The film is actually the footage of the process of making the film. Only towards the end did I realise that all the talking an interactions are all scripted (at most improvised). Even if all the actions captured by the filmmakers were truly spontaneous, you'd still question how "spontaneous" they were, because almost everyone onscreen is a professional actor.

I did not know anything about the 1980 film, but thats kind of irrelevant to this film. Even now, I personally fail to understand the motivation behind this film. It’s like a bait-n-switch. Yes there are 2 graphic sex scenes but whats the point. The scene where Franco and his actor friend discuss what is normal sex and why is gay sex considered ‘deviant’ was a good part but apart form that, I just kept waiting for something to happen. It just didn’t. "Interior. Leather Bar" is ultimately more an idea for movie than a movie itself and it feels half-baked by the time it ends.

The only good thing is that it wasn’t unnecessarily stretched. With the running length of just about an hour, it is bearable. (4/10)
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