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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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La Misteriosa Mirada Del Flamenco (Spanish) [The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo]

By Golu

This movie is a period drama set in 1980s Chile that tries to tackle bigotry using a mix of revenge and heart. It’s set in a dusty mining town in the desert, where an eleven-year-old girl named Lidia lives with her loving, queer family on the outskirts of a community that doesn't want them there. Things get really tense when a mysterious sickness starts spreading, and everyone blames Lidia's family, claiming the illness is passed just by looking at someone. Honestly, it felt like a big metaphor for the AIDS pandemic, but I’m not entirely sure if that was the only point they were making.

The story centers on a commune of transgender women living out in the Chilean desert. As this new plague takes over, rumors fly that making eye contact or sharing a "loving gaze" with a gay man or a trans woman is enough to get you infected. Lidia gets bullied like crazy by the local boys because her mom, Flamingo, is a trans woman and a total beauty queen in their tight-knit community. Flamingo is actually sick herself when the movie starts. After Lidia and her friends get their revenge by beating up the bullies, a man named Yovani shows up during a cabaret performance. He's Flamingo’s lover, and he’s sick too, but he blames her for it. One minute he’s being incredibly sweet to her, and the next he turns violent and kills her. Fearing the women will retaliate, the miners in town start restricting their movement, even going into their home to forcibly blindfold them so they can't "infect" anyone with a look. While all this is happening, the leader of the trans women ends up finding some unexpected happiness with an older miner, while young Lidia is left carrying the heavy burden of wanting revenge for her mother’s death.

I really respect how bold and poetic this film tried to be, but if I’m being honest, I was bored out of my mind in several spots. It has this neo-Western, coming-of-age vibe that I’m sure will make it a huge hit at film festivals, but for a regular viewer like me, it didn't really land. I also struggled to figure out what the movie was actually trying to be. After Flamingo is killed, I thought for sure it was going to be a revenge story about Lidia, but then it just kind of wanders off to focus on the group’s matriarch and her new boyfriend. It felt like a forced way to squeeze in a message about love and acceptance. There are plenty of metaphors—like when the girls force the bullies to look them in the eye to demand equality, or how Yovani shows how love and violent hate can live right next to each other—but you really have to have the patience to dig for them. I just didn't have that kind of patience. The acting and the setting are great, and I know it was the country’s official Oscar submission, but it didn't do much for me. I guess I’m just not an "educated" enough film critic to appreciate it. It tries to be a grounded fairy tale and a Western all at once, making you wonder if there’s some historical truth behind it, but by the end, I wasn't sure what the main point was.

It’s a visually striking and metaphorical movie, but the wandering plot and slow pace made it hard for me to stay interested or even understand the final message. (4/10)

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