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 takes its name from the FLH manifesto published in 1973, which in the film functions as the center of the story of the hard struggle carried out by the LGBT community from the formation, in the late 60s, of the first group Nuestro Mundo led by Héctor Anabitarte, until crowning with Equal Marriage and the Gender Identity law. From five testimonies of protagonists of those times (Jorge Luis Giacosa, Guillermo García, Valeria del Mar Ramírez, Daniel Molina and Alejandro Modarelli), issues like marginalization, discrimination and struggle in the most diverse fields are reconstructed.
It was an interesting perspective to see a lot of background imagery and videos constantly being shown behind the voiceover. That helps viewers keep their interest because constantly there is something new to stimulate your visual senses. Although after almost half way through the film, I started losing interest. Trying to keep up with subtitles and watching visuals and all became too much. Also, somewhere my interest in the story also started dwindling and I was like , I wish this film was tightly edited. Watching some of the historical aspects of how gays were treated back in the day not just in Argentina but other parts of the world was quite an eye-opener. I mean, by now we all know the story of how gay liberation has been a movement for many years and how some of the older generation have given their hard sweat and tears to make this happen, but seeing it every single time, opens up the same wounds. Anyway, overall this documentary was strictly ok for me and nothing that memorable. (3.5/10)
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