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...
Its Christmas eve in 1986. Borja is a loner teenager who likes to dream about films. Its his passion, just like his father. His elder brother Vincent is a reader and their mother is another oddball. They come together for Christmas eve dinner after which secrets come out. Vincent goes to his friend's home, a lie to cover the fact that he is going to a gay cruising park. While the drunk mother is sleeping, Borja goes through Vincent's stuff in his room and discovers his. gay porn books and jock straps which makes him very horny and he realizes his own sexuality. Vincent gets mugged at the park and comes back home dejected and the brothers have a huge fight over sexuality issues. Borja challenges Vincent on why doesn't he accept who he is rather than denying. While the brothers are talking and find solace in each other, the mother wakes up and hears everything and attacks Vincent. As an instant reflex, Borja attacks his mother. Cut to 1999. Borja is now living with his boyfriend but still has horrid dreams about gay attacks. Finally he goes to visit his family's grave to tell them that he is forever moving to SF to learn film making. But a chance sexual encounter with the cleaner leads to his death as well.
This film could have been a nice erotic thriller but I felt that the director got too much self-absorbed and could not make heads or tale of what he wants to say. Despite great acting, good looking actors, pretty good production quality, the film is let down by a trash script. The scenes where Borja is exploring Vincent's room is stretched way too long just to increase eroticism for no reason whatsoever. There is more than enough penis shots in the film. After a mediocre slowness, the film does pick up pace when the two brothers have a fight. That's a very good scene and paced well but again it slows down with Borja's dreams. The only good things about the film is the 2 extremely charming actors who give it their all but sadly the film itself lets them down.
There are better films that show sudden eruption of suppressed desires and this movie itself could have been a great film. Sadly, the writer and the director got carried away in self-indulgence. (4/10)
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