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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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Bilmemek (Turkish) [Not Knowing]

By Golu
Based on the story and summary of the film, I honestly would not have reviewed this as a gay film, but then I found that this film was actually screened at a lot of international LGBT film festivals. So< I guess, at some angle, the makers were trying to cache in on the queer angle, although just like everything else, this film is a lot about emotions, relations, family an individuality than anything else.

Sinan & Selma are a couple, who are happy on surface. She is a doctor treating refugees and he works in a shipping industry undergoing major changes. Their son, teenage 17 year old Umut, is a intelligent and loves water polo hoping to get scholarship out of it to go to US for further studies. We are clearly not told but both parents are probably having affairs, they are both indifferent to one another but its their son Umut that keeps them together. One day Umut comes to help a young boy being bullied and beaten up. One of his teammate takes a photo of the moment compassionate Umut is comforting the young man, cradling his face. It looks as if the two will kiss. Rumours soon swirl around the pool. And every time he is asked if he is gay, he blankly refuses to answer saying it I son one's business. He refuses to dignify the question with an answer. Before you know Umut is ostracised. The torment and harassment get worse, turning physical in the pool. Our protagonist receives abusive texts at all hours and is pushed into the deep end mentally. One day he disappears and more than two weeks later, the parents and team mates still don't know what came of Umut.

The is a very subtle yet a very emotional and sensitive story. You are immediately drawn into lives of these three people and it feels as if you are a viewer to someone's real life unfolding in front of you. Its interesting that we are just shown their life in surface. Its none of our business, as an audience , to know whether they are having an affair or not. In fact we can't even say whether Umut is gay or not. The point here is why is it so important for society and the people to label anyone. How and why does it matter of anyone is gay or not gay. Umut is tortured mentally by constant bully but he never gives into the pressure of answering the question. Maybe because he doesn't know it himself. This is not a film for everyone, and as I said before its not strictly an LGBT film, but having said that I think this is a very good film with some beautiful story, acting and direction. The actors are very believable as a family. Go for it, if slow burn sensitive, open ended films are your scene. I quite enjoyed it actually. (7/10)
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