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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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Queens Of The Dead

By Golu
Yet another horror comedy genre, this time mixing drag queens, queers and zombie world. A group of queer characters find themselves trapped in a Bushwick nightclub, fending off a horde of the living dead. Sounds familiar? Yes, I have seen at least a couple of films, more recently in the Canadian film Slay. I feel like this genre has specific viewers and is targeted for them. I have to be honest that I was quite enjoying the first half of the film, but then it just felt. Ike it is dragging on for no reason. Also some of the gags were really not as funny as they were likely on paper.

Needing a last-minute cover for her half-dead party, Dre hesitantly calls on an old friend, Sam (who I snow a nurse and has been out of scene for a while now), to fill in the stilettos of the headliner for the night. After getting reacquainted with some old faces and butting heads with some new queens. Sam meets Ginsey, Sam’s drag mother and mentor; wannabe performer/dealer Nico ; and Lizzy’s plumber brother Barry, the film’s token straight. Sam, along with everyone else, soon realizes they are biting off more than they can chew as their attendees take the term ‘eating’ a little too literally. There are zombies on the loose looking to bite off your meat. This eclectic group of queers must fight tooth, and well-pressed nail, against the Brooklynite undead. 

The stories quite minimal and for this kind of film it is the ensemble that works together flawlessly, bouncing off each other and giving funny performances all around. There are some very well known faces here. Sadly, I am not familiar with their work except for Pose star and Margaret Cho. As you would expect the film is campy, unapologetically queer, with in-jokes and universal aspects to queerness used to create a compelling comedy about our community, without us becoming the butt of the joke. Every kind of queerness is the norm here, and the fact that the majority of the cast is LGBTQ-identifying adds so much underlying heart and realness to the film, despite the outrageous premise. The lack of emphasis on homophobia/transphobia is apparent and refreshing. The problem with the film, according to me, is that it is not as sharp or witty, a sit thinks it is. These kinda movies need to be sassy, go with the flow kind, which was all good for first half , but somehow I started to lose my interest after that. The film is a joyful tribute to the queer community in garish, gut-munching drag and for lovers of this genre, I can see them lapping this up laughing out loud. My idea of humor has evolved over time and so this was not really for me. (5/10)
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