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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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Çilingir Sofrasi (Turkish) [A Night In Four Parts]

By Golu
I have a fascination towards Turkish films ever since I lived there for few years. Although there have been a very few gay films from the country, once in a while they do come up with decent surprises. This little small budget film running at just over an hour is one such similar film.

The basic premise of the film is very simple and straight forward. Two former high school buddies meet for dinner in a cozy restaurant after 17 years. One of them has just had a baby and they were able to connect through social media. When asked about his wife, the other friend very casually says that he is gay, used to have a boyfriend but is now single. As they drink and talk they realize another life is possible on a land where toxic masculinity does not exist. They represent the great divide in Turkish gay society: The lonely self-declared homosexuals and the married hypocrites. While they talk more anymore, we realize that. They might share a history from high school. As the gay man says that they were not friends in high school. What they used to do easily makes them lovers. But only if the other guy had the courage to accept who he really was, things could have been very different for both of them.

As modern as Turkish society is towards sexuality, Turkish men still feel weird labelling themselves as gay. They may not be great at expressing themselves and their emotions and this comes out beautifully in this film. I can see many folks not liking this film, since this is very conversational film. Wo friends reminiscing their old days. The straight guy still have feelings for his friend because it was only that time he was true to himself, but he also cannot escape from his reality. All the past memories, their present fights are so well shown. I also really appreciated how well the culture of eating, drinking raki and music in such places was shown. I liked ho the waiter would just slightly let the gay man know about his interest in him, hoping something would come out of it. Even the ending is beautiful in its own way, where they both have to be true to themselves and protect their feelings. Some things were never meant to be. Great acting and a good choice of actors. A wrong casting choice and this ilm would have fallen flat. I appreciate that the film was not stretched just for the heck of it. Told in four parts, the film is just one being evening of dinner and drinks and chat, and guess what, I quite enjoyed it and a glad I saw it. (6/10)
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