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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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Lille Spejl (Danish) [Mirror, Mirror]

By Golu
The fact that this film came out back in 1978 in itself is a big surprise to me. Sure, from a story perspective there may not be much going here, but again the fact that the film was made years ago is HUGE deal. The life of gays and transvestites portrayed with empathy in a comedy that has Bent, a factory worker, as its main protagonist. We meet his mother, who makes no bones about having always wished for a daughter rather than a son; his closet days at work; and his let-it-all-hang-out off hours with kind.

Brent, an aging gay man is the main protagonist of the story. He is a huge fan of his mother, whose used to be a famous artist and is now on death bed with cancer. He has lived in the shadow of his famous mother all his life, and is constantly trying to survive and find out who he really is by stealing and doing odd jobs here and there. Along the way, we meet his group of eccentric and quirky friends, who might be a bit more colorful than most people. A woman friend who runs a bar, an older gay man whose house is always filled with drag queens dressing up for performances and most importantly a straight couple, close friends of Brent, and Brent who secretly has a crush on the husband. All these characters may not significantly add much to the story itself , but it's a more slice of life kinda film. When Brent's mother passes away and he almost gets a reality check by various people on his looks and what he really means for most folks, at the end he leaves the city with all his mother's stuff.

The film was supposedly a queer comedy and I can see how the film sensibilities were different in that era. Likely influenced by the famous queer French film La Cage Aux Folles (which was filmed the very same year); this film wasn't my flavour. The films need to say something or mean something and here that wasn't very clear. Sure queer solidarity, rebellion against pettiness, celebration of life could be a few examples, but all these things in isolation do not make a memorable movie watching experience. Thankfully the lead actor was quite charming and portrayed the role of Brent very beautifully and you could see the mischief and sadness and perkiness with his mother; different emotions at different times. But overall, there is not much to keep you going. Even the group of drag friends, just dressing up and the forced comedy of neighborhood man beating his wife or the new straight tenant, just did not work for me at all. (2.5/10)
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