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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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Blood-Red Ox (English/Spanish)

By Golu
A gay psychological thriller on paper must sound good, but this film by the Bolivian filmmaker will most likely go over most people's head. At the onset, you will notice some very beautiful landscape and cinematography and that is consistent throughout the film, but the senseless plot that I tried to make sense of, plenty of times, I just couldn't comprehend. The film tries to capture the essence of classic psychological horror, but ultimately fails to deliver a satisfying ending.

Gay couple Amir and Amat arrive in Bolivia from upstate New York on invitation by Amir's friend Amancaya, a local female activist revered by all. As they drive from the airport to Amancaya's house, they come across an ox that has been hit by a car. The animal is obviously suffering, and so Amancaya shoots it. Soon Amat begins having strange, blood-drenched dreams.He confesses to Amir that he used to have them after his mother committed suicide and they stopped and that he doesn't want to lose Amir. The next day they are taken on a tour of the rain forest by Amancaya's brother Amaru and we spend a very long segment in jungle. Now from here, I am not really sure what happens because I can see multiple interpretations of this. Soon it feels not only Amat, but even Amir is going through visions. After a couple of nights, Amat refuses to recognize Amir. They fight and Amat runs into the woods, naked blood stained. In other events we find that maybe Amancaya's brother also really doesn't exist and is probably a figment of imagination. For some reason, that I did not understand, the film keeps repeating some scenes and some dialogues multiple times in different settings with different people. After a while some new characters starting to show. Was Amat never real? Are Amir and Amancaya's patients of mental illness? I want to think so, but honestly at this point, I am really not sure.

This film never directly answers any questions. In fact, the film is almost impossible to follow and comprehend the chain of events or characters. What's real and what's imagined? Which visions belong to whom? These questions cannot be answered. And this is a huge shame, because the two lead actors playing Amir and Amat are not only freakishly very good looking and ruggedly handsome but are also good actors. Both offer intense performances. In their scenes together they are desperate and frightened. As Amir and Amat, they make for a lovely couple. They do their parts convincingly but the script just leaves the audience so damn confused that even good acting cannot save a film that just doesn't make sense. I can understand and appreciate experimental film making, with some thought provoking elements, using psychology horror to show nature and humans living together using symbolism of all sorts; but I can almost guarantee that even if you watched this film carefully two-three times, you will still not be able to clearly articulate what really the story was. And when you can't tell what's real, whites unreal, what's supernatural or what's imagination, this film should go as one of the most confusing unconventional that will make no sense to almost everyone. (3/10)

PS: Did anyone else notice that every characters name started with an 'A'. I wonder if there was some significance to this too. Oh and the one sex scene between the couple was actually quite hot.
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