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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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A Man, His Lover and His Mother (Swiss German) [Rosie]

By Golu
This film is technically not a gay film to be precise. This is more of a relationship that an ailing mother shares with her children , especially her gay son. And since, the son being gay is an important aspect of the series, I am ok writing down a review of the film here. Originally titled as Rosie, I think the film's title was changed to attract more gay audience, because the gay son is definitely not the central character. Its the mother.

Rosie is old and lives by herself and one day falls and is admitted to the hospital. His gay son Lorenz who lives in Berlin, comes back to take care of her. Lorenzo, who is in his mid 40s, writes gay fiction but of late his books are not getting good reviews. He also has a sister who is herself dealing with her family issues. They both argue that neither of them can take care of the mother. But Rosie herself insists that she wants to stay independent and refuses any help. Lorenz struggles with her strong-willed mother but ultimately gives in and make frequent visits. Love comes knocking when he meets Mario, neighbor's grandson who is very attracted to Lorenzo. They have a great one night and Mario wants to see this grow into something. But Lorenz pushes him away and it becomes obvious he isn’t dealing with his own issues, let alone those of anyone else. Eventually the drama continues to built and some past family secrets are revealed that delve deeper into why the marriage between Rosie and her late husband was a disaster and how this has eventually affected the relationship between her and kids and why Rosie has become the stubborn person that she is. Eventually when Lorenz realizes his love for Mario after pushing him away many times, it might be too late to make any amendments.

As mentioned above, the film is not a gay film but it does spend sometime focussing on issues that Lorenz has with Mario who he still thinks of as a young man and that eventually his relationship will fail. The family dynamics between the mother and 2 kids is very real and it deals with some very relatable issues. At first Lorenz becomes frustrated with Rosie and sees her as stubborn but as the film progresses he begins to understand that accepting your limitations isn’t something that’s easy to do. Rosie was brilliant as an actress. She carries the film completely on her shoulders and has a charm. She also brings in some light moments and humor times. Having said that, the family drama was way too much for my linking and it felt stretched in a lot of places. Given the changed title, I would have liked to see a lot more focus on Lorenz and on his past and current life focussing more on Mario. There was a lot of scope there. Lorenz and Mario have good chemistry and you can see and actually relate to why Lorenz would try to push Mario away.

Overall not a bad movie, but please don't think of it as a gay film. This is a film about relationship of a mother with her kids where the gay son plays an important part. Its stretched a bit but doesn't bore you. (5/10)
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Comments

luigi43 said…
It is too obvious , I must rate this film more than 10/10 : I live in their Country , my husband is Swiss .....Apart every sciovinistic joke , nice movie , well directed and realized , very recommended .
July 29, 2019 at 9:40 AM
Golu said…
:) You are too sweet.
July 29, 2019 at 5:14 PM
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