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 story is pretty simple. Leevi, a handosme young Finnish guy has been living and studying in Paris and has just returned home to Finland for the summer to help his father renovate their old lake house. Leevi’s relationship with his father, is strained since he is an old-fashioned man. I believe he knows of Leevi's sexuality and doesn't approve of it. The father hires a young man, Tareq, through an agency who can help renovate the house . When Tareq arrives, he doesn't speak any Finnish and we get to know that he is a Syrian asylum seeker desperately looking to make a life for himself. When the father is called away for work, the two young men bond over beers and soon find themselves in bed together. This goes on for a couple of days till the father realizes and he fires Tareq with racial insults. Tareq's self respect is high enough for him to leave immediately, despite Leevi wanting to come with him but Tareq needs to be on his own to figure out stuff for himself. Love that could have been something so special is broken, just like that.
It's interesting how things are relative for each individual. Leevi found Finland to be suffocating and feels more at ease in Paris. Meanwhile Tareq sees Finland as a land of freedom and opportunity compared to Syria and his very conservative family. The film is very very real and the emotions are easy to connect with. The scene where Tareq is mad and unsure whether he wants his family to join him in Finland is brilliant. Its a brilliant depiction if family values of the middle-east and how family always comes first but its also about Tareq wanting to be free finally. How will he choose one over the other? Direction is brilliant with some amazing scenes overall. The built up of intimacy between Leevi and Tareq is filled with awkwardness but also love and passion. There are lots of silent moments that add to the authenticity of the film. Like someone said, "There’s an admirable quiet intensity to this film" and i cant agree more. The initial sex scenes eventually give them time to know each other better as people and it is very evident that both the boys are way too much into each other. They have both been looking for true meaningful love, yet its eluded them and this could be their chance. The chemistry between the 2 leads is 100% believable and magnificent. You can see they are in love and eventual pain after a sudden break-up, when rightfully so, Tareq's self-respect and dignity is bigger than anything else; even though if its not Leevi's fault. Its rare to see such amazing chemistry, completely natural with enough emotional and sexual intensity. Both men are forced to confront issues in their lives that have long been ignored.
This film is a low budget film but a very effective cinematography of the Finnish landscape and the magical chemsitry of the leads makes this film worth every minute. The actors are brilliant. Its slow, sensitive, poignant and hits the right emotions. This film lingers with you for long and I for once, want to get to know the sensitive refugee Tareq up and close. (8/10)
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Many titles gay themed , in movie and TV are really very interesting : Oroi , Rift , Salkkarit , Skam just to write some are worth to watch and save.
These Nordic countries have their owm way of bringing cinema and ideas to screen. Some really good while others outright bad . lol
Welcome to my blog and here's to hoping you to continue to post your thoughts
They talked about the awful winter and I suddenly realized what is so awful about it - the effing darkness. The cold and snow and ice are exactly the same across the bay in Estonia, and the darkness, too, so I can really relate to that and I know what they're talking about. When you're in it, it seems... normal. When you've seen other options (Tareq in Syria and Leevi in Paris), you finally see what's really wrong. The darkness creeps into people and takes them over. Freezes their real emotions and makes people fake them (or just remain poker-faced the whole year round). That's why the Scandinavian films are full of really heavy drinking - it helps to forget the overall darkness, at least until the hangover. Btw, they're drinking Estonian beer there :D
The summer renovation projects are also "a thing" in this region since that's the only time you can actually keep the windows open to air out the smell of paint and varnish. Basically everyone is doing some renovation every summer.
The character of the father is also typical for this region's middle aged people. They can say that they are accepting, tolerate and OK with differences, but that's only the facade. Deep down they've still got "us vs them" mentality - and that was shown really well in this film. Somehow this father seems narcissistic to me, especially at the very end of the film when he realizes that he's offended both the refugee helper and his own son by declaring that the opinion of the villagers is more important than their own decisions and happiness - instead of apologizing he flips the matter and starts playing the victim ("You're blaming me for your mohter's death!"). I know it's just a film and these are just actors, but I really-really-really wish Leevi will stand up, go to the car, drive away and never look back.