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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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Boven Is Het Stil (Dutch) [It's All So Quiet]

By Golu
This extremely slow film, for the most part, is a depressingly grim study of loneliness and sexual repression as well as of old age and family relations, in this case between a father and son. Not much happens and here is hardly any communication between characters (maybe spoken words are just about 15 minutes in the entire duration of the film). It is not an easy film to watch. I would also not classify this strictly as queer cinema and one of the chaplets is also about repressed sexuality here.

Helmer is a single farmer in his fifties who lives with and cares for his aged, bedridden father in countryside. His working days are marked by the visits of milk collector, a man of his own age for whom Helmer holds a secret fascination – a mutual need is evident but unspoken. One day Helmer decides to renovate the house, buying himself a new double bed and moving his father upstairs. His life gains even more momentum when adolescent farmhand Henk is hired to assist. Surprisingly, the young lad also finds Helmer attractive and a sexual tension soon starts building up. He attempts to be physical one night – the result of which changes Helmer's thoughts and desires. The young lad soon leaves the farm and the father soon dies. Henk has left, Helmer returns to his farming chores, and at his father's burial, the milk collector returns and we are left to wonder what will change.

Even though the film is excruciatingly slow and feels like nothing is happening, there is still some level of brooding and lingering quality to the film that made me want stick through the end to see what happens. I am not sure why Helmer never actions on his sexual needs when there is clearly intensity from both. What kind of guilt is he or the father dealing through? At some point we are told of a younger brother who died, but I am not sure I understood the whole back story very clearly. I guess the makers were going for some sort of examination and life and death and love and people you encounter n the life's journey, but is there a point or a message being told here; I am not sure. The performances and the mood and country life is spot on. The big problem here still is that whether people will have patience to sit through this film. (4.5/10)
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