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...
Kit and River come from completely different worlds but were friends as kids. Kit was the son of River's family's helper. They lost touch and ended up in totally separate social circles in high school. Kit is openly gay, creative, and pretty much an outsider in the school's social order. River plays the confident popular athlete. River is about to fail his guitar class and can't afford that, so he goes to Kit and asks for tutoring, offering protection from bullies in exchange. The more time they spend together the clearer it gets that River has genuine feelings for Kit and starts flirting. Kit doesn't really know what to do with that, thinks it might just be a phase, and kind of plays along without fully buying into it. River eventually comes clean about his feelings and the two get together. River's girlfriend finds out and threatens to out him, which causes River to pull away from Kit completely. Kit goes to him directly about it and gets nothing back. Finally River realizes he can't keep away and in a really sweet finale he sings a song for Kit and tells him how he feels in front of everybody.
The show doesn't use suffering as its main tool, which already puts it ahead of most things in this genre. Fear, repression and bullying are all part of the story but the emotional connection between Kit and River stays at the center of everything. River's fear of being outed connects to his mother being a public figure, which makes it feel grounded. There's also a guy who bullies Kit throughout the show and it turns out he's closeted himself, using the aggression as a shield. Kit comes across as isolated early on but he's not someone who just takes it, he confronts River directly when he feels his feelings are being treated as unimportant. River isn't just written as the typical closeted guy either. He's a teenager who has spent years building a version of himself that has nothing to do with who he actually is, and balancing that with his mother's public image gives him a conflict that actually feels real. The show clearly wants to avoid the toxic, shock-heavy patterns that vertical BL has become known for and goes for something warmer and more romantic instead. At under an hour it holds together, even if none of it is new territory. Both actors look good and handle the material fine. Satisfactory pretty much covers it. (5.5/10)
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