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...
The film is set in the time of Cardinal Law, who during his time in Boston apparently turned a blind eye to all the cases of child abuse and sexual abuse of young boys and continued to support the priests. We see a few very uncomfortable scenes where priests are seen molesting young boys. Primarily amongst these were Father John Geoghan, whose arrest in many years later starts to uncover all these hidden truth. The victims start to come forward, and a lawyer Mitchell Garabedian sues Cardinal Law & the diocese for hiding the crimes from the authorities. Cardinal Law arrogantly defends his behavior, and refuses to resign. The film follows through how the lawyer gets all victims together to make a string case in the court and how law and media come together to expose one of the biggest scandals and cover up by the church.
This film is not an easy watch at all. There is a scene where one of the victims is taunted by a couple of insensitive men at a local deli. When he graphically describes to them how he was abused, I was almost in tears. Any amount of graphic details cant match that short scene that make you truly feel what those young boys must have gone through. Its hard to not become angry at the double standards of the church and see this film objectively. It took many brave souls to take on the Catholic Church on such a horrifying subject as the pedophilia that occurred by the very same Priests to which we entrusted our children. The cast of the film is just perfect. Everyone does a standout job and the film brilliantly shows the impact on the lives of those abused and focuses on the church, in not the best of terms.
Its hard to rate movies like these. Something with a very strong message, very gripping and you are curious to know how the church is going to react to the whole scandal. Besides the bad title of the film, I would generally rate this movie quite well but still a very difficult to watch film dealing with a very controversial and sensitive subject. (7.5/10)
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