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Stop! That! Train!

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...

300 Cartas (Spanish) [300 Letters]

How can two people spend an entire year together and feel completely different about the situation? One things everything is great, while the other one has a whole different perspective. This is what the film is trying to explore. Over the course of the film we see many glimpses of this couple's relationship right from living together to threesomes to arguments, the entire relationship plays out. Is the viewer supposed to decide who’s right and who’s wrong?

Tom and Jero are a gay couple who have become well-known on Instagram. On what would be their first anniversary, Jero comes home to find that Tom has left him. The only item left behind is a pink box with 300 letters that Tom wrote on each day they were together. The letters seek to explain why their relationship reached the conclusion it did, and as Jero works his way through them, he realizes that the relationship was nothing like he thought it was. Flashbacks take us to the early days of their relationship. We don’t really see Tom writing the letters in the past but he does seem to document the ups and downs of that year. The early days of Jero and Tom’s relationship is dominated by sex. They meet up initially for a one-time hook-up that turns into something more. They both agree that normally they both won't go for the sort of the person that the other guy is (Jero is chiseled and what one would call muscle gay while Tom is more of a fem gay). With each letter, Jero feels he has had enough and gives up but he comes back again, becasue he is not really getting the answer. And finally when he sees what really happened and ho Tom used Jero for his benefit, this twist does come as a surprise and helps us confirm our growing dislike of Tom while also confirming our empathy for Jero. 

Jero has no idea that there’s anything wrong in his relationship, so when he discovers Tom’s letters, he’s plunged into a world he never expected to find himself in. Tom does make it clear in his letters right from the start that he and Jero are very different and likely incompatible. Tom sees Jero as “superficial” and labels himself a hard-working teacher and poet. This allows us to consider that maybe Tom had a good reason to leave Jero. Eventually we learn more about Tom’s overall intentions with Jero, suggesting that Tom may not have been as truly committed to the relationship as Jero was. The film primarily rests on shoulders of the two main actors out of which Jero is the lead. He acts well, is easy on the eyes and walks around most of the film just in his underwear, so there is a lot of eye candy as well. His lean, muscular, hairy young body is constantly on display. Given how Tom's role ends, he performs well but no one from audience will like him. Esteban, who plays Jose's friend also does a good job whose job it is to pick his friend up off the floor and help him move on. Thankfully the ilm doesn't show any secret feelings for each other. They were truly just friends. The film is different but is not without its flaws when you start to look into the details of it but nonetheless it is an interesting premise. The film makes you really think about how each one of us has different takes on the same situation, and it could prove an eye opener for those viewers who walk through life believing their viewpoint is the only one that matters. (6/10)

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