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...
Matthew and Brandon are best friends and form a part of trio. They are all teenagers. When Brandon discovers a gay magazine in Matthew's room, they both come out to each other and confess their love. Unfortunately, Matthew's father sees them together and forcibly sends him to a mental institution. A few years later both the boys are sent to gay conversion camp, where they try to obey the rules as much as they can. When the camp ends, Brandon decides that he cannot pretend anymore and is thrown out of home by his mother. He is 18 now but Matthew is still few weeks short of 18. Despite this he also decides to leave home to be with Brandon. After being homeless for a few days and being very sure that they are not going to hustle in a gay bar, they meet an older man Tommy who gives them shelter and food at his home expecting nothing in return. Eventually Brandon gets a job at the bar and enrolls in college and Matthew starts training at Tommy's saloon. The film ends on a sweet note where Brandon proposes to Matthew for marriage and to be together always.
As mentioned, this film was shot at a very low budget but thats the least of my issues with the film. A lot of time transitions in the film are shown through animation and musical numbers which test your patience. I was just rolling my eyes and fast forwarding the movie to reach to some meaningful point in the film. Each and every dialogue was unnecessarily stretched. The unnecessary long musical numbers were getting on my nerves. The acting was below par but that I blame on the director. I feel the boys had potential. The way the dialogues were being said felt as if some reading session was taking place. Also, a film that on one hand is trying to give a message about coming out and still being a true christian had these out of nowhere sexual dialogues between the two boys which felt totally out of place.
The film needs some serious editing and cut it short to 30 minutes and it would be barely watchable then. Till then, it is completely avoidable, unless you are bored out of your mind and have nothing better to do. (2.5/10)
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