Stop! That! Train! (c) Bleecker Street
Film: Stop! That! Train!
In Cinemas
Just as small-minded politicians seem to think painting over rainbow crosswalks and banning rainbow flags are the most pressing political issues of the day, comes the one film that will unite the country in patriotism and reach across the aisle for bi-partisan pride. Not! Director Adam Shankman’s Stop! That! Train! is the railway equivalent to Airplane! upping the exclamation point quotient by two and ramping the gay perspective to 11 (don’t worry straights, you’ll get enough of the references to get by). Impeccably cast by Brett Greenstein and Collin Daniel from the Fire Island chapter of SAG-AFTRA, the film is the spiritual sequel to Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar with the innocent charm of Dee Dee (Ginger Minj) and Tess (Jujubee) as two best friends with high aspirational dreams of being glamorous train attendants—the throughline that makes the film more than just mile-a-minute visual gags. If you’re a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you get the level of the humor here, with Ru herself having a supporting role as the clueless but always happy President (thankfully, she did seem to have reversed all the structural changes of the White House of the current administration). The film’s disaster plot of a once-in-a-lifetime monster storm in the path of the Glamazonian Express train seems secondary (why can’t they just stop! that! train! again?) with the gay sensibilities making the scattershot jokes a pleasure to sit through (with the sassy train attendants, played with scathing bitchiness by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone and Marty Lauter, giving perfect reads). There are also many celebrity ally cameos with unequal success: June Diane Raphael and Charo being the most successful while Sarah Michelle Geller and Missi Pyle miss the mark. Just in time for Gay Pride month, this film should be enjoyed with a crowd, because once it hits streaming, altered viewing parties will be the popular way to enjoy it from there on.
Power Ballad (c) Lionsgate
Film: Power Ballad
In Cinemas
There is an early clue in Power Ballad, the latest film from John Carney (Once, Begin Again), that this will be a pretty standard musical film, as we learn that our hapless hero, played with a little more unlikeable edge than usual by Paul Rudd, is named Rick Power. And he wrote a ballad that he accuses former boy band star Danny (Nick Jonas) of stealing from him, called (wait for it) “How to Write a Song (Without You).” These on-the-nose elements of the script (co-written by Carney and Peter McDonald, who also plays Rick’s best friend in the film) makes the plot feel written and not organic. But that doesn’t mean it’s not successful in providing the kind of Irish twist to the material that makes it charming and endearing. Power hears his song playing through a mall’s sound system, and he immediately recognizes it as a song he’s written, and once played for Danny when they were at the same wedding (Paul working as the wedding singer, and Danny as a guest of the groom), and ended up jamming into the night. There is a “he said, he said” element to the plot, but the mystery is moot as we see the events of the evening Danny says he came to write the song, his first hit since his boy band broke up. Most of the film takes place in Ireland as the American singer Rick became an ex-pat after falling in love and having a daughter in Dublin. Rick’s heart is still in writing a hit song which fuels his obsession to have Danny confess plagiarism. Rudd plays Power likeable enough at the beginning, but as he keeps running into roadblocks and getting no answers, he becomes unbelievably irrational and at times, violent. Jonas, however, feels very natural as the pop singer, and he at least provides a reason for the path that his character takes, which is a nice change of pace from his past cinematic excursions into Jumanji and Christmas movies with his brothers. By the time the film leaves Ireland for its big finale, any semblance of reality has been lost, and your enjoyment of the film will depend on your good will towards the characters. I lost interest. But I did like the song. Will it be a banger like past Carney film songs like “Drive It Like You Mean It” and “Falling Slowly?” Time will tell.
Backrooms (c) A24
Film: Backrooms
In Cinemas
Since its stellar box office opening haul and continued success last week, Backrooms, the A24 film by vlogger-turned-film director Kane Parsons (at age 20), doesn’t seem to be losing any of its momentum. There appears to be a resurgence of horror films as witnessed by the endless trailers of slashers, poltergeists and zombies coming to a multiplex to you. And with the recent phenomenon of the film Obsession, which keeps making record money since its opening, Backrooms is a double punch that makes a case for lower budget films, from visionary, young directors over overstuffed budgets and IPs from bigger studios. Backrooms is fine. I went opening weekend and I was sitting in a sold-out screening with a young audience of twentysomethings who probably know Parsons’ The Backrooms precursor YouTube videos, under the name Kane Pixels. The film follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an angry furniture store owner who takes no responsibility for the failures in his life, including his failed marriage and lost dream of being an architect, even going to a therapist (recent Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve) to vent. Then, he discovers a secret passageway in the basement of his store, which leads to endless rooms upon rooms of odd imageries, a consistent humming overhead light sounds and the occasional jump scares from something that might be living in what seems endless labyrinth. What this place is and if it’s only a part of Clark’s psyche is what kept me occupied after the umpteenth time Clark (or other characters) enters each new room of spookiness. Without going too much into spoilers, my theory is that the metaphorical backrooms is a Severance-like psyche world that Clark has tried to keep separate from his unhappy real life. But there are elements that punch holes into my hypothesis, so who knows what’s really going on. I suspect there will be many deep-dive dissertations in the coming months on the level of Donnie Darko but is the movie satisfying if you’re just going to watch it this one and only time? Parsons does a good job in creating a mood but not great in sustaining it, instead opting for more horror tropes at the end that seems like an easy out. Like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity before it, Backrooms is a low-budget phenomenon that should be experienced enter the collective moviegoing conversation.
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