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 film starts with Older man Joe going to meet his sister Ethel on his birthday, but you see that they have clear friction between them and Ethel can't wait to get out. Told through flashbacks, we see Joe meeting Tom when they were both teenagers in the countryside. Joe is quiet and socially awkward while Tom is sociable, gregarious and outgoing. Their friendship quickly turns into chemistry and a very strong romance. Ethel, who is very close to her brother Joe is happy to se him come out of his shell but when he finds out that they are lovers, she is completely disgusted and can't fathom the idea. Tom's father reacts in the same way. But Joe and Tom are undaunted as they resolve to live as a couple whatever the family think. Over a period of time Ethel has still not come to terms and the siblings are increasingly estranged. Ethels' son John tries his best to make his mother make sense of Joe's sexuality. But by the time she makes sense of any of it. Joe is diagnosed with cancer in its later stages and doesn't have long to live. This bombshell changes everything and in a very sad way brings together the estranged family members with Ethel not just accepting them but also promising to be there for Tom even after Joe is gone.
Told through multiple flashbacks, the essence of the story is to show how a family can be torn apart just because someone is different. Sure Ethel doesn't really have a strong reason to despise gay, (except this is just how she was brought up), but sticking with it fo nearly 40/50 years is a bit much. A little more reasoning would have helped, especially since her grown up son is close to his uncle and could have tried to smooth the relationship. The love story between Tom and Joe both as teenagers and in old age in endearing, romantic, subtle and pure. But it tests your patience. There are many parts of the film that are extremely extremely slow and nothing much happens. The director has tried to show a realistic moving portrayal of a gay relationship here, but at the runtime of almost two hours, many scenes run a lot longer with people speaking sooooo slowly. The love story between Tom and Joe in their teen years has a real and natural chemistry and the actors do a good job. The older actors, in my opinion were a bit of a let down. In many scenes it felt they were acing as if they are in a play and it felt very rehearsed. The film has its heart in the right place, but its does get indulgent at places and this is when, in today's day and age, it's hard to hold audience attention. (5.5/10)
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