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...
We are introduced to rival class friends group, one of Filipino origin and other native Hawaiian. Edmar is a high achieving shy quiet student of the Filipino group while Pili, the native Hawaiian is from the other group. Somehow for a class project, these two boys are paired together and come up with a dish that imbibes both their cultures. As expected they both protest, but they are forced. Pili invites Edmar to a gathering with his family over the weekend, where he gets to learn a lot of things about Hawaiian culture. Similarly, Pili gets. To lean a bit about Edmar , his background and culture. Even though they both have girlfriends, they do feel some sort of attraction with one another. As their friendship grows, they do have to hold back because if their respective friends, but eventually they cannot control their bond and attraction and the film ends with two rival groups becoming friends and the two boys finally giving into their feelings with a kiss.
To be honest, I do appreciate the director's intention to bring something new to the table. The setting of Hawaii is breathtaking and gorgeous to say the least, but I feel bot the actors and the film makers have some way to go before they can make something more engaging. More than the love story, the film focuses on the struggles that Hawaiians and Filipinos in Hawai’i face result from the same global economic forces. Using love story as a background, lot of these issues are discussed. I did like that they do give us a lot of information about Hawaii culture. But the problem is the love story. It barely exists. When and why do they two boys get attracted to each other is never clearly shown. I mean just because two seemingly foes spend a weekend together getting and understanding each other's culture; is that reason enough to fall in love? Maybe it is, but I would like to have seen the process for that. Also, these are supposedly high school students, while Pili clearly looks like a 25 year old young man (albeit extremely good looking). Edmar can still pass off as a school student. The two boys falling for one another just happens so randomly that it doesn't make much sense honestly. And that''s like a big red flag for me. The film switches between English, Tagalog and Hawaiian language easily and effortlessly, which is nice. At almost 2 hours long, the story between the two main protagonists could hav been handled so much better. I don't feel any empathy for the characters. There are random characters like Edmar's cousin sister who drools over Pili every time she sees him. Honestly its embarrassing to watch her. There are a lot of scenes of almost nothingness which tests your patience.
Yes, the attempt is good, but unfortunately the final product leaves lot to be desired It will be a while before Hawaii gives Asian BL's a run for their money, bth in scripting and direction , at least for time being. (4/10)
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