Mainstream appeal and supporting local drag

This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana Carvana believes selling your car should be easy. Get a real offer down to the penny, picked up from your driveway. You may keep waiting for a catch, there isn't one. Sell today at cararvana d. comot pickup fees may apply Stop that train is what you get if you took the gags a minute silliness of airplane, crossed it with a lighthearted friendship of Barb and Star, and then filtered it through the bawody lens of RuPaul's drag race. In case it's not clear, this is a good thing. It stars mother Hselff RuPaul Charles as the president of the United States, because of course it does. Along for the ridiculous ride on this runaway train is a calicade of drag race alumni and comedy heavy hitters We're all here to serve looks and bring the shade. I'm Glenn Woldldon. And I'm Aesa Harris and today we're talking about stop that train on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR This message comes from NPR sponsor, Carvana. Carvana believes selling your car should be easy. Get a real offer down to the penny, picked up from your driveway. You may keep waiting for a catch, there isn't one. Sell today at carvana. com. pickup fees may apply This message comes from Cubemart self Storage Whether you're moving, renovating or need more space, CuBbemart puts you first W options ranging from storage lockers to climate controlled units, and a team of storage experts ready to help find your perfect unit Get your first month free and up to forty percent off select units now for a limited time. Discount applies to select units only. Additional terms and conditions apply. For more details, visit cubesmart. com. This message comes from Dell teechnologies. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series three and Telcore. Now from six hundred ninety nine dollars. W exclusive student pricing from five hundred ninety nine dollars. Visit Dell d. com slash deals This message comes from Capital One, presenting sponsor of the twenty twenty six Tiny Desk Contest. The entries for this year's Tiny Dk Cest traverse genres, cities, and unique desk styles. Join NPR Music and the contest judges as they review entries and see where this year's videos take you at npr dot org slash tiny Dk Contest and travel even further with the Capital One Venture X card, earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. see capital onene. com for details Join us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is enttertainment host, culture commentator and co host of High Ky. Ryan Mitchell, welcome back, Ryan. Happy prride, everybody. Happy Pide. And happy, stop that train. The only reason I'm saying this is because every word comes with the exclamation point. No jury in the world will convict you. And to be honest, RuPaul would actually want you to say it like that. I think you're doing a great j. Thank I'm just trying to serve mother, as they say. So stop that train. stars Drag Queens JjB and Ginger Minge as train attendants, Dee Dee and Tess O test One time I ate a magnet and got stuck to a flagpole Deeee, I was born with adult teeth Yes. They find themselves unemployed after the budget trainline stink rail goes out of business, and then they quickly land a new gig aboard the Glamazonian Express, a luxury high speed railway. But a massive Stormaganza threatens to make their first trip a bumpy ride. Enter President Gagwell, played by RuPaul and traffic controller Donna Dusk play Rachel Boom They step in to help keep this train on its tracks and out of harm's way. Stop that train. is in theaters now Ryan Tell it to me straight How do we feel? I thought stop that dream? I'm gonna tell it to you gay. Yes. Thank you. No, I absolutely loved this movie. I was not sure what I was going to get to be quite honest. I was like One, I'm shocked that this film is going to theaters. I thought it automatically in my brain was like, wait, it's going to go to a streamer, it's going to be on the World of Wonder apppp and everyone can kind of take it there. But to know that they've sort of got this moment to have In theaters at this huge large stage, I'm like, oh This is going to be something major in the cast is stat Yeah. But ultimately, I do love it, but it also feels like okay, if you are a fan of RuPaul's Drag race, honey, you are watching a rusical in a Rua's Drag race challenge. loock in because it's about to be a wild. Yes, Yes. Okay. I love it. lock in, buckle up, fashion your seatbelts, all that stuff Glen, tell it to me however you want to, straight, gay, whichever way you want. How do we feel Yeah, I reviewed this movie for NPR, and I started out by saying something very similar to what Ryan just said, which is this is a better than average acting challenge on a better than average episode of a better than average season of RuPaul's Drag race. And you know for those who know what that means, that's gonna give them an accurate assessment of whether or not they're gonna go to the movies, stream it, or avoid it like the pllague mostost people, that's not going to mean anything. So if I can break it down for them, I would say that Long ago, back in the elder days, when chthysaurs swam the turbid seas in the year nineteen eighty A film you already mentioned Aisha called Airplane came out. There was a spoof of seventies disaster films, which were then very thick on the ground, and it created this formula. the endless barrage of very dumb and very sweaty jokes and a lot Very game celebrity cameos And all the goofiest jokes were played absolutely straight with the kind of sort of same, you, weighty intensity that the movies that they were parroting had because that's why it worked. Ecept there was this island in the middle of that film, the character of Johnny, who was played by the late great icon Stephen Stucker. He was a guy wored in the control room, and he was He was going to say he was coded as gay. There was no code. You didn't need an enigma machine to decrypt like flamingly gay. And if you're a queer person in that audience and even as a queer kid, you see him come on screen, you kind of go into a defensive crouch because it is nineteen eighty. And you're just waiting there for a lot of really hateful lazy jokes at Johnny's expense Except Johnny is so charming and funny, and he's such a chaos wremlin that you start to realize that everyone in the audience, including your parents, who never met a lazy, hateful gay joke they didn't love, they're laughing with him, not at him. He's not the butt of the joke. He's our friend. He's bringing us into the movie, he's breaking the fourth wall And what people are reacting to is not the gay stereotype, but this guy is just free and he's himself and he's hilarious. So I'll just put it this way. This movie is airplane Dumb jokes, celebrity cameos, and real talk a lot of the V very same gags. We gota sl let's be out a lot of the very same time I did. Yes. It's airplane It was nothing but the Johnny B bits, and that is a winning formula for me. But Ayisha, when I talked about this movie in like our summer preview, you expressed some like, know enthusiasm for it. And I was surprised by that because well, I wasn't because I assumed from that that you must watch Drag Race. But I learned that you don't And then I really No. And and then I learned that, well, you know, she must have seen the trailer, but then I thought, well, you avoid trailers. famamously, you avoid trailers. So how did this movie did where did your enthusiasm come from? Okay. So first I will say, I have seen exactly like Approximately a half of an episode of drag race one time when I was at a gay bar in Puerto Rico and they were showing an episodes right. And so like but it was still it was a bar. So it's like there's always so much attention that can be paid when you are, you know you missed the Byzantine nuances. Yes, I did. I haven't avoided Drag race for any particular reasion. It's just it feels at this point, I guess overwhelming. And everyone I talk to tells me a different season to start and I don't know where to start, so I just haven' it The thing is, I actually did see this trailer. It's a good trailer because I followed RuPaul on Instagram. And so it popped up and I was like, what is this? And then I was like, what is this? And then I was like, yes, I want this. This is like the one time your algorithm actually did you a favor. Yeah Yeah. And and also learning that this was written by Christina Frio and Con to wrright they're credited with the script here. They wrote a TV special, Christmas special that I very much enjoyed the bitch who stole Christmas, which also stars RuPaul. So I'm like a RuPaul fan just not within the context of drag race.s I don't know that sounds strange, but that's where we are. And I very much enjoy this movie. Like you said, Glen, it gets like airplane, but with just like a distinctly queer sensibility. And I loved so many things about it. I love the many recurring gags, the many faces that we see. Sarah Michelle Geller pops up here doing a fun bitid. We got some great songs. We've got Rachel Bl Rachel Bloom. I love Rachel Blom. so. She is kind of for me and she's like the straight person in this movie, but like And She really is for me kind of the surprise. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed her, notot because I haven't enjoyed her in the past, but I was just like, oh, they're really giving Rachel Bloom a lot to do here. And she can play with it. She can play against all these characters. H and Ru Paul have great chemistry. She's just a delight. lo this, but I also feel like the problem, and I think Glenn, you put this really, really well and you articulated it well, but I always come up against this issue when talking about spoof movies because it's like How do you talk about this? Like it's just gats, you know? And on top of that, it's like it depends on what your humor is and how you respond to that. Ryan, I'm curious like Outside of the RuPaul world, are you a spoof person? Do you enjoy spoof movies or like What about this made you excited about it besides the drag race aspect of it, if anything? Yeah, I mean, when I think of sppoof movies, I think of like movies like Scary Movie, you know. And I love some of the earlier ones, but if we're talking about the newest one, please throw it away and it just doesn't work. But because this is rooted like specifically in queer culture and there's just like, oh my God, I've had these either conversations, I've made theseokes, or I've seen this It just feels like home. It felt like I was literally hanging out with friends and we were all sort of like having the same joke. I think that is what really makes it work here because here's the thing, if you are really not someomeone that is necessarily a drag race fan or if you don't like really have queer friends or like you're in queer community, this may be like what is this sort of deviance like movie? L that is like full of like RuPaul literally running over a toddler in a train. Like, you know what I mean? Like there's some things that you just won't understand because you're like, too serious. And I think queer culture allows you to sort of laugh at the things that you've sort of been like made fun of for so long. And I think for a spoof movie, this is actually quite perfect. and I think it's why the show Ruause Dragace has worked for so long because it embraces stupidity. And for me, when it's done really well, just works and there were moments in this film that I felt like, okay, this gag is going on like five, ten minutes, way too long. But other times I felt like This felt really like wonderful. It felt like, oh my Godd, I'm leaving this film with multiple quotes that I'm going to say at all times, like vocal fim. So I think that's what makes a good spoof movie because if you're not able to make fun of people or make fun of like stereotypes, Well It won't hit. It will actually offend everyone. You know what I mean? And just will be like, oh, this was gross. like what is this? And I think other spoof movies in my opinion have sort of turned me off in that way where I've been like Okay, this could have been smarter Yeah. I need like stupidity and smartness in my spoof movies. If it's not there, then girl throw it away.. Exactly. I mean, like this movie benefits from two things. One the joke density, which is like it's like that of a neutron star. This is a very joke dense movie And so the signal to noise ratio is going to work out because if this one didn't work, the next one might. It's also benefiting from the fact that something you mentioned is that kind of went into this thinking, I know exactly what this is going to be because some of these movies and certainly a lot of acting challenges are nothing but references, Easter eggs, callbacks to things on Drag race. You know, if twenty four seeasons of Family Guy have taught us nothing, it's that references are not jokes. There's a difference. And This thing has some really well constructed, solid but Really dumb. Th those are not mutually exclusive. Really dumb jokes, not just shout. I mean, there's some shout outs to like, drag race catch races but they're there to add seasoning. They're there for the nerds without shutting out the n. And Leo Michelle catches a stray too, which I found hilarious. Eact The best stray actually And like, you know, this is how this movie is like a Marvel movie. It's one of many ways this movie is It's there for the nerds, but the normals can kind of get it too. Yeah And shut out. I also think to your point, Ryan, like the question of Why is this in theaters or like the shock that it's in theaters? Just what I know about the Drag Race fandom and the fact that like I said, I was watching this at a bar. and there are bars and communal spaces all over the world that are watching. and it is a communal experience. And so I can imagine I did not watch this in a theater, but I can imagine this is the type of movie. like if you're gonna go see it, you want to see it with as many people as possiblein Honestly, most spoof movies, that's kind of how I feel because you want that collective experience of laughing at something dumb. And if you're doing it just by yourself or maybe with one other person, it doesn't quite hit the same. But that's what makes this so interesting though, because Rupaul's drag race, this is not accurate, but has been on for like seven hundred and thirty eight seasons. There is like an oversatuation like to, you know, this show where a lot of people in a lot of the commentary, even from Queens are like fans of the show have been like Oh A the twentieth season of drag race, they may need to take a break for a little bit and revamp and then come back. So there is like sort of this tiredness of just the constant cycle because it's not just RuPaul's drag race. It's all sts. It's globals. It's international, you know, seasons. And so for me when I saw that it was coming at theaters, I was like, wow, this is yet another example of how much RuPaul loves capitalism and is willing to like make sure He is everywhere, The brand is everywhere, worldorld of Wonder is everywhere. I mean, even in the film, you see someone playing the RuPaul's drag race like game in the film. Yeah. That's a classic like drag race sort of like callback because the show is full of you know, RuPaul's iconic music by the way. RuPaul's discography is quite amazing. I want you to get. It is. But it's this cycle of just being like, it's like for Ru by Ru. And so it's I'm interested in seeing people do go to the theaters to see this film because there is unfortunately so much drama surrounding it. It's not even out yet. You know, it will be out by the time this is aired, but it's going to be really interesting with the juxtaposition of just people sort of exhaustion overall with the show Yeah if I'm being quite honest. Okay. I do also want to talk a little bit or ask you all about like the look of this because The look also feels kind of Much of the special effects to me kind of felt rendered as though it was like Windows ninety five, but on purpose. What do we make of the way this movie looks? There's this whole discourse that's unfolded online about AI and this movie. And the distributor confirmed there's a mix of CGI effects with some shots enhanced by AI And it doesn't look like this is not what I would say is like mainstream broad appeal. This is like low fi, kind of tacky, but deliberately so. Ryan, I'm cur you're nodding. Yeah. No, because I completely agree actually, like I was sort of happy I didn't see this in a theater because it was meant perfectly for a screener link. I felt that because there is so much conversation around possibilities of usage of AI in this film. Of course, like the team speaking out against that. It's just so interesting to me around like, oh Ruaul's drag race is such a place that's supposed to be all about like authenticity and like you know, protecting queer art. It just gives me like the ick when I do know and see something like this, especially when you get your big break of being in a theater that you're sort of cutting you're cutting corners and it feels that way. there is a way where yes It would have there could have been different decisions being made in my opinion over this. Yeah. Yeah At the end of the day I'm old enough, I don't know the difference between CGI and AI really. I mean I'm used to thinking that CGI looks muddy and AI slop looks too clean, too bright, too sharp And this aerirs on my humble estimation in the latter category there. But you know at the end of the day, it's exactly your point. It looks tacky, it looks cheap, it looks low rent, which is should. That's the vibe. That's the aesthetic they're going for here. It doesn't look and shotdy like it would in nineteen seventy five if they made this, you know using practical sets and practical effects But it looks cheap by today's standards, and I don't know, I kind of serve the whole, Hey quQeens, let's put on a show vibe for me. Do you think they were actually intentional about it looking cheap and tacky kind of think so. How could they not be, right? That's what I'm saying though. I genuinely feel like it's intentional for them to be like, oh, this is what this world looks like at such a like a high gloss, you know, angle of what this film could look like, but No. I think they actually do think it looks really good. Oh, interesteresting. Well, now we're just trying to get into their heads, but I'tue, true, true. And Latrice Royaal did an interview where she said, Adam Shankman was very clear with us not to contour. He didn't want us to have like sharp lines on our face, whichich tells me that he knew exactly what was doing how digital production would look and he was doing everything he could to soften it and make it look as good as possible in the realm of dreress Yes, ye. ye, ye. I mean, I still think everyone should see it. I think it's like hilarious film and, you know, go see it with your friends. Friends and enhancements. That is what we are. Yes suggest. This is coming out in theaters, yes. It's coming out in theaters opposite a science fiction film by Stehven Spielberg Oh. I mean, you can call that counter programming or you can call it getting buried. I don't know. we'll see how it works out. but ye the only aspect to this movie that felt a little I don't want to say waterered down. widened out for a mainstream audience is that look, you got drag quQeens on screen reating barbs, flaring their nostrils slapping the jes out of each other. I felt like those barbs were a little placeholder. They were cutting, but feeling like They should really lacerate, draw blood And I felt like maybe we were hanging back. like we were on the threshold of the gay sex dungeon, but we' kind of lingering in the doorway, you know, just for the sake of the random straets who might wander into the theater by mistake. But that's why I kind of felt like that was their eye towards box office Randy, do you get what I'm saying here? does that resonate? I do. I do feel the same way because if Rupul and like in this team wanted to push it, they could have pushed it. But I do think there was probably a reeling in of being like, all right, if we want to make this Actually this goes to a larger conversation about the mainstreamness of like drag and like how drag rice has sort of come into like the everyday conversation of everyone, right? Like a lot of people don't You mean drag brunch. Yeah. The proliferation of drag brrunch.. Exactly. L there's there has to be some editing that and some refinement that, you know, masses can take, which sort of takes away for me the charm because it's like you were right there. goo over the finish line and if you're going to give me something completely disgusting, just do it because I'm going to live for it. But because it feels like they're trying to make this palatable for all audiences, it's sort of like why not just go to the audience that you know is going to want to see this movie and actually like be very excited to see some of the oGeez of Drag race and some of the new phases and some of the like their favorite like iconic like celebrities and queer icons and things like like just do it and not have to worry about sort of switching in your films. It feels like a version of that in some ways. Yeah.o Ryan's point, I mean, like RuPaul always has an eye toward the bottom line. She wants to be as big as possible. So yes, she's in the same queer cinema space as John Waters. She's never going to be John Wers. She's never going to try to be John Waters. She's always going to pull back and have an eye for a wider reception and good for her. I will say one thing though. like if you feel inclin to see this moie go see this movie you'll be helping out your local theater, you'll be helping out the good folks at Bleaker Straight the distribor.'ll be helping out queer Cinema at lararge You'll be also be helping out Drag as it manifests on RuPaul's drag race, and that's great You know, if you're already out and about thinkink about keep the night going and maybe take in a real drag show in your a town, get out your paper money, go tip these performers who are sweating through their foundations for you. because despite the success of Drag race