Review of Bear Cub Cachorro

Introduction

There have always been films that will take the viewer outside their comfort zones. Some people go looking for it, others avoid it, and some people sometimes find themselves watching a film like this because they`re expected to. And so, here I am after watching Bear Cub Cachorro; a film I would never have chosen to watch normally. When I first got the disc, I checked out the disc details on the page and got a slightly nervous feeling. I knew I needed to watch it, and I didn`t have strong enough feelings to point blank refuse, but I was wary about what might be on offer during this viewing process.

Bear Cub Cachorro, a subtitled Spanish language film, centres on Pedro (José Luis García Pérez), a gay Dentist who has a very active social and sex life within a subgroup of the gay community called Bear Cubs. Bear Cubs, I`ve now learned, are gay or bisexual men who have a stocky build, hairy bodies and facial hair (Wikipedia is so useful sometimes…). Pedro`s hippy sister Violetta (Elvira Lindo) drops in on a flying visit with current boyfriend Borja (a very brief part with no speaking required from Cali Caballero) to drop off her son Bernado (David Castillo) before her impending trip to India. Pedro has agreed to look after his nephew for the 15 day duration of his sister`s holiday, and has decided to set a good example to his nephew by effectively putting his social life on hold.

Pedro struggles with trying to set the right example by his nephew, admonishing friends for lighting up joints and feeling awkward about having sex with the young man around, despite the fact that this is clearly abnormal behaviour for him. Part of this is clearly because he has strong protective feelings towards his nephew and also because it`s clear that his sister both thinks and hopes her son is gay.

Then one day trouble comes to town. Pedro gets a call from the Ministry of International Affairs who tell him that Violetta and her boyfriend have been arrested for drug trafficking. Pedro becomes Bernado`s unofficial caretaker and his bear community rally round to do their bit for the new `family`. Despite his virtual withdrawal from this social circle, he is thought of in high regard by his friends who help rearrange the house and throw a surprise party to allow him to relax once in a while as Pedro is finding guardianship/parenting harder than he initially thought.

Then Bernado`s grandmother enters the equation. Doña Teresa (Empar Ferrer) has already lost her son to drugs and she still harbours resentment to her daughter-in-law who refused all contact with Teresa after the death of her husband. Teresa seems to just want the chance to rekindle her relationship with the only link left to her dead son, but Bernado is not interested due to the past influence of his mother. Teresa is frustrated by Pedro`s inability and unwillingness to persuade Bernado to cooperate and comes up with a plan to force the situation.

Pedro slowly drifts partially back into his old lifestyle, which gives Teresa her opportunity, and is also harbouring a secret that will affect everything in the end.

Video

The picture is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1, clear and undamaged picture.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack with subtitles.

Features

Nothing, but this is a Screening Copy only and so there is nothing included that may end up in the retail version.

Conclusion

As I said at the start, I had some reservations about watching this film. The opening scene almost had me convinced and reaching for the fast forward button, my ideal opening scene not being two hairy and paunchy men having sex. Once past that (in a bit of a blur at ffx2), I decided to give the film a go and see what happened. I was pleasantly surprised, although not quite sure why that was. I`m not quite sure exactly what I was expecting but what I found was a heartwarming story about a man`s love (no, not that kind…) for his nephew and his struggle to reconcile his lifestyle with the responsibility of guardianship. Of course there were other scenes that made me a little uncomfortable, but after a while seeing grown men kiss each other tenderly didn`t cause me the slightest problem and made me think about how uncomfortable it might be for gay people to watch films containing similar scenes between men and women.

This film also takes the opportunity to address a number of issues surrounding the gay community but does it in a completely non-confrontational way. This film isn`t about thrusting the gay, or I guess more specifically the bear community, lifestyle in yer face. Everything about Pedro`s lifestyle is shown in an almost casual way, not preaching but just showing you how it is. It`s only moralistic if you as a viewer make it that way. Cruising and casual sex are shown in various guises, and drug taking is also put on view. To be honest only the snorting of Class A drugs caused me to wince while watching this film, being done at a party that the nephew was at, but I`m not naïve enough to think this sort of activity doesn`t take place in otherwise stable heterosexual homes up and down the land.

Some of the sex is quite explicit in this film, none of the usual sugarcoated moody lighting and power ballad playing in the background against vague glimpses of bare flesh glistening with sweat. Whilst the opening scene was clearly filmed in daylight, a lot of the sex scenes are darkly lit (whether in a darkened room or filmed on-location during the night). I suspect that whilst this may well be accurate in terms of the gay community, it is also a deliberate attempt to include scenes of gay sex without causing too much outrage or discomfort from a heterosexual audience. This isn`t to say that won`t happen, especially as virtually nothing is left to the imagination and some of the actions by characters could easily be interpreted as aggressive or forward. I`m not sure if this film was intended for a mainstream audience, but I can imagine just about all of the tabloid press being up in arms if asked to watch this film regardless of their political views. It`s not going to meet everyone`s approval, but if you can get past that, you can judge the film properly as a whole and not just for the inclusion of those scenes.

The performances in this film are quite strong, both Pérez and Castillo forging a strong on-screen chemistry. There is also strong support from most of the other members of the cast (the other bears are portrayed as normal human beings and you certainly believe that). Ferrer also gives a strong performance as the `interfering and evil` grandmother. She initially starts out as a sympathetic and quite tragic figure when you first see her, which then switches to an impression of being judgemental, nasty and manipulative but eventually becomes a bit of a grey area as you finally realise that actually she was just concerned about lifestyles she never understood (both that of Pedro and her own daughter). It`s good to see a film that blurs the character traits in such a way, as not many people are as clearly defined in their behaviour as you normally see on celluloid. It allows you to both understand the feelings expressed by both Pedro and Bernado at the denouement but also reassess how you feel about Doña Teresa.

For me the triumph of this film is in taking a conventional movie plotline of a person forced to look after a younger relative and place it in a quite unconventional setting. Not only that, but the gay community used is not the usual stereotypes of permatanned hunks or camp guys that you would generally see in mainstream TV or film. All the gay characters here look just like ordinary blokes that you might pass in the street and none seem to be particularly handsome, ordinariness being the watchword. When all is said and done, this is just a story about a man and his evolving relationship with his nephew, nothing untoward either happening or implied, and just happens to occur within a particular subset of the gay community that neither flaunts itself or tries to subvert. The welfare of Bernado is always at the core of the story, and it is amusing to see Pedro do his best to shield Bernado from various activities within his social circle, without realising that his nephew has almost certainly been exposed to most of it via his mother already.

Both serious and funny in good measure, this film won`t even be considered by many (and in a different setting I would have been one of them) but this film is worth watching at least once to gain an understanding of a different culture and a realisation of how different standards exists between cultures all over the world regardless of race, religion and sexuality. What one set of people see as normal can be viewed as alien and unacceptable to another, you can see it every day if you look hard enough.

Bear Cub Cachorro is not perfect, although that observation can be also be directed at virtually any mainstream work, but it`s worth a try if you feel you can handle exposure to a completely different way of life.