Flick Night In The City: BearCity, Romance Can Be Hairy

After a ruff week back at the office I decided to make a date with myself and a few of my X-mas presents (a DVD, a bottle of vodka with pomegranate mixer and a nice pasta dinner) to make it great movie night on Friday. I’m hoping not to make it a habit of staying in on a Friday night this year but I wanted to explore the possibility of writing a movie review each week. It does not necessarily have to be a formal review but since I’m a cinema/film junkie I can talk about from many different perspectives. Don’t worry I won’t spoil the film for you but if there is any reason I feel that I need to I’ll give you the dreaded “SPOILER ALERT” right at the top of the entry so you don’t read it.

I could not have planned a better movie to start "Flick Night In The City" with than this week’s movie selection: BearCity (now out on DVD). It touches upon on many of the major themes that run through our community, not only the Bear & Chub scene but the whole gay male community. The diverse pool of characters is all well written/acted and of course one of the main characters is my beloved NYC. It’s a major character much like in “Sex & The City” visually, as much as part of the dialogue. Douglas Langway could have put a few more major city shots here and there but nothing that would be missed by anyone except a NYC junkies like me.

While getting ready for the upcoming “BearCity Weekend” (hosted of course at The Eagle NYC) this tight group of friends (think the dysfunctional boys of Queer As Folk only hairier) topics including unrequited love, open relationships, boy crushing, weight loss, self image, manscaping, not fitting in, sex, drugs and plenty of FUR talk. There was of course the expected happy ending, and one unexpectedly funny ending as well, that you want from a romantic comedy. I laughed. I cried. I talked to my TV in anger (maybe the drinks had something to do with this), but you get the picture (parum pum).

I found myself invested in the characters, relating to almost all of them in some way or another. Of course most movies are written with that purpose, or at leas the good ones. There are a few familiar faces, beginning with “McSteamyBear” Gerald (HardG) McCullouch (from CSI:Crime Scene Investigation or CSI:LasVegas aka The Original) who plays Roger the HOT DADDY Casanova of the movie and the always hilarious Stephen Guarino (from The Big Gay Sketch Show on Logo) who plays “HusBear” Brent. Brent is one half of the comedic couple, completed by the beary funny Brian Keane who plays Fred. Bert & Ernie, as their friends refer to them, are considering spicing up their love life.

In comes the NCOTB (New Chaser On The Block) Tyler played by new comer Joe Conti who is secretly infatuated with Daddies and Bears and Roger, Oh my! (sorry couldn’t help it) and decides he must embrace his inner BearDaddy Chaser. To achieve this he needs to come out of the “Bear Loving Closet” and abandon his GLEE Krew of Twinkies including former roommate Simon brilliantly played by Alex Di Dio also a new comer. [SIDETRACK: As you all know I have a thing for little guys and when I saw Simon I thought “OMG! So cute but way too flaming, what a waste!” Note that I said “brilliantly played” because while I was doing some research on the actors I came across a few things on Alex and he is not only a HOT 5’8” singing Otter… WOOF WOOF! But in real life he sports a beard which made him all the more attractive and is actually not a flaming Twink as you can see from this interview in Philly. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him on the big screen. But in the mean time I would be happy to see more of him anywhere and if you would too check out this HOT Video of him I found. I need to watch BearCity again now that I know how hot he is in real life…GRRRRRR!]

To round off the community (no punts intended) there is Michael, the Southern Belle Chub played by Gregory Gunter, who is in a relationship with HOT Latin Chubby Chaser Carlos, played by James Martinez. Carlos is the typical macho Latin man who gets hot headed when he feels his love interest is threatened in any way. One thing is for sure he loves his “gordito lindo” always spiting out great Southern wisdom throughout the movie. In his eternal wisdom he realizes that player Roger (who is eye candy delight) has feelings for someone other than the Spaniard, Fernando played by Sebastian La Cause.

Don’t worry I haven’t told you anything about the movie you can’t get from watching the trailer.

The BEAR-ssential is: This movie really is a great representation of much of the Bear/Chub community. It’s funny and real all at the same time. Did I mention that there is eye candy for everyone? Just look at the cover of NEXT Magazine. Especially Mr.HardG who I always crushed on CSI but seeing him NAKED several times in the movie with all that yummy grey WOOF!!! And of course Lil’Alex who is the hottest little guy, even in the tight little yellow shorts or that nude scene... Grrrrr. (Ok! Ok, I’m digressing again.) Point is there is a hottie for every taste in this movie. More importantly the movie is a must see for any one in or interested in the Bear/Chub Community; and support these guys by buying the DVD as I did. You will enjoy having it in your collection.