Bear City

2010, 105 minutes, USA


For those who do not know, the gay scene is usually split into a number of subcultures. Twinks, circuit boys, clubbers, gym bunnies, fetish... The list is endless. One of the biggest sub cultures is Bears and their admirers. Bears are men who like to be men and have hair and as much as possible. Stereotypically they are also fat but there are also muscle bears. Not surprisingly, Bear City puts bear culture at the centre stage. It tells the story of Tyler, a 21 year old twink who has a bear fetish. It deals with him 'coming out' to his other twinky friends as a bear lover or 'chubby chaser', him trying to integrate with the bear community and falling for the top bear.

It is clear that this film was made in order to represent the bear community and to offer an alternative to the perfect, hairless bodies that are usually presented in TLA Releases films. However, for me, it completely misses the mark. It reminds me of late 1980s/early 1990s gay films where there was hardly any films where gay men were at the centre of the story. Those films revolved completely around their sexuality without any other layers to make the characters interesting. Bear City seems to have done exactly the same thing. The only problem with this is that there have been a number of decent films where bears were the main characters, Boystown and Bear Cub were particularly good. These films, although were centred around the bear scene, still managed to cover issues that were not all bear related. Bear City has gone a step back from that and the characters look a bit too one dimensional because of it. The film could have developed other story lines to give the characters some depth while still showing in your face bear sex scenes and lifestyles.

The second issue I have, and it is not the first film to do this, is the focus on Tyler. The film is trying to make the point that gay sub cultures reject people sexually who do not conform with that particular 'look'. The way Roger rejects Tyler at the start because he cannot be seen dating a non bear is portrayed as shallow, but when Tyler rejects his best friend who is a twink, there is no judgement at all. This occurs in a lot of gay films where the smart and funny guy gets rejected by the stud until his full personality is exposed and the stud falls for him. Of course, no film ever makes the smart and funny guy go for another smart and funny guy who also does not have the body.

What does make this film is the performance of Stephen Guarino, who plays Brent, a chubby chaser who is discussing with his partner whether to open their relationship up. His performance is hilarious and he has really been able to give some excellent one liners. I really hope this helps with his acting career because his performance was superb. The rest of the cast were slightly wooden, but he really helped make this film slightly enjoyable

I suppose for any bear and their admirers, Bear City is probably a breath of fresh air where hairy and fat men are sexualised and unapologetically, put at the centre of the film. Not being a bear myself, it will not have the same sort of representation factor for me and perhaps there should be more characters to reflect the diversity of the LGBT communities in more films. However, I am not a fan of making films for the sake of representation. Give some bears a leading role in films and stop being so segregated!

3/5 - Perhaps you need to be bear to really enjoy this!

Break My Fall

2011, 102 minutes, UK


Whenever I receive disks from films from either Picadillo Pictures or TLA Releases (two of the main gay film distribution companies), I like to check out the trailers to see what else I might want to watch in the future. One thing I always notice is that usually if the film is about gay men then they will have trailers for gay men films and the same for lesbians. It is almost like lesbians and gay men live separate lives and want to live in some sort of gender division utopia. I have to admit I sometimes get like that as you may be able to tell.

Anyway, when I received Break My Fall I had not realised that the two main characters were females and it was based around the hedonistic 'Shoreditch' scene - not exactly my thing. Oh well, I thought I would give this a go and I have to admit the first 20 minutes I found very difficult and slightly boring. But then something hit me. I worked out what the director was trying to achieve which transformed my whole perspective of the film.

The story revolves around the breakdown of the relationship between Lisa and Sally and how they cope through excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol. The sleeve of the disk refers to the film as being 'blistering' - creating images of hard clubbing scenes which actually the film is everything but. It covers the come down rather than the party. It can be difficult to watch but you get this dis-functional hangover feeling through watching the breakdown of their relationship while they are recovering from the night before. It is clear Kanchi Wichmann, the director, is clearly trying to make an analogy between human relationships and drugs. It really made me reflect on some aspects of own my life.

I have to say I was very impressed with Wichmann's directorial debut. Yes, sometimes the acting is wooden and the script slightly fails at points but blimey she has potential. Not a huge fan of films which put lesbians at the centre stage but this certainly is one of my favourites!

4/5 - an impressive debut!

Seeing Heaven

2010, 106 minutes, UK


'All the public want is pretty flesh'.

Following a relaxing holiday where I did not manage to watch any films, I had a little catch up. The first one from LoveFilm was another TLA Release called Seeing Heaven. Now, for those who are not familiar with TLA, the produce LGBT independent cinema. They are never big films and generally only watched by the LGBT community. The majority of them are guilty pleasure trashy films, and on rare occasions, actually top quality films. However, they sometimes release bad films that try to be art or say something profound about the gay community and this was one of those films.

Seeing Heaven tries too hard to mean something and reflect gay culture in some way. In this case, it looks at the porn and rent boy industries. It first fails with the terrible acting, which is made worse with the constant flash backs which is followed by another wooden expression. The film has a habit of overdoing the camera work and comes across as if the director is just trying to show what he can do. This ultimately fails and makes the film worse.

It also drags out every gay film cliche in the book and the constant Dorian Gray references were cringing. So many other titles have managed to cover this subject better. Strapped, for example, is another TLA release and it manages to cover the issue of prostitution, say something interesting about gay men while not taking itself seriously. 90% of TLA Releases are good or fun, but it is titles like Seeing Heaven that just should not have been made.

I have noticed that I have been quite harsh with the films so far, but this is the luck of the draw with my account. I also go through stages of getting films which I love. This is what I love about the service as well as films generally - seeing what is out there, good or bad.

0.5/5 - Just terrible

A Four Letter Word

2007, 87 mins, USA

A Four Letter Word explores the life of Luke, a stereotypical gay guy who goes on a journey of self discovery when he meets Stephen (with a PH), a rent boy who he falls for. However, Stephen is not always who he seems to be. While Luke goes on this relationship of self exploratory, a number of characters are there to support him, including his anti-stereotypical gay friend who works with him at the sex shop in Chelsea, the couple who have just moved in with each other and the heterosexual alcoholic woman who has to be in control of everything, including her wedding.

This film is your typical TLA Releases production: wooden acting, a plastic cast and a script as shallow as a kids paddling pool. Certainly not a work of art and does not try to produce anything meaningful. Some of the one liners, such as 'slut is a four letter word for yes!', did produce a smile, but a few too many sank without trace.

I always find it intriguing that these films always portray the two extremes: one the gay man who parties and sleeps around, and two, the gay man who is the activist and helps the community. I never fully understand why films do this as usually gay men are a mixture of the two

I also found the couple that had a sub plot to be completely pointless and wooden. I am not sure why they were included as they brought nothing to film and seemed the most boring couple in the world.

Despite all its faults and flaws, A Four Letter Word is meant to be trashy and light hearted which I suppose it delivers (although there are better examples). While this was never going to meet the artistic merit of a 1960s classic or a French masterpiece, this sort of film has a place on my rental list because it is a guilty pleasure - something we should not be taking too seriously.

2/5 - Fails as a piece of cinema but a little gem of a guilty pleasure