Bear Cub (2004)

Too much of everything

Memorable, crazy movie

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Despite the director's statement in the DVD extras, I found the characters quite clichéd, the script a little heavy-handed, and actor direction a little loose. A masterpiece it is not. In fact, I was tempted to stop watching all along but continued to the end, hoping for something interesting to happen and the story to take off. While it didn't happen, the last minute revelations made it worthwhile to stick with it for 1hr30+ minutes. Without disclosing any of the (thin) plot, I have to say that I was positively surprised at the difficult themes treated in the story of Bear Cub and tip my hat to its director. It may not be a cult classic in years to come, but deserves some attention.

With a title like this you'd be half-expecting live-action Disney or a Jean-Jacques Annaud follow-up on little Youk's life. Instead, we have a film that goes against everything I stand for, proving once again that it ain't what you say but the way that you say it.First, it's that loathsomely predictable (and manipulative) approach to storytelling, the set-'em-up-to-watch-'em-die. Bernardo (David Castillo) is left with his uncle Pedro (Jose Luis Garcia Perez) while his mother Violeta (Elvira Lindo) goes to India on "business." For reels I sat waiting for something to befall her. No plane crash. No CG-enhanced terrorist bombing. Not even a fiery car wreck. What keeps Bernardo and his uncle together is not death, but that other dependable cinematic punisher – drugs! Violeta is imprisoned for smuggling and director Albaladejo wisely spares us the "Midnight Express" torture route and heavy-handed moralizing.Not since Edith Massey's pleas for a queer son in John Water's "Female Trouble" has a cinematic mother so desired a gay offspring. Violeta's constant reassurance of her young son's homosexuality even wobbles Pedro's lascivious leanings.Any one of the films numerous subplot could be expanded into 90 minute, made-for-TV, crisis-of-the-week melodrama. Grandparents ought to have visitation rights, gays make loving parents, dentists with HIV deserve to make a living, HIV is not a death sentence, etc. The true villain (and victim) in the piece is Bernardo's paternal grandmother Teresa (Empar Ferrer). Infectiously despised by Violeta, Bernardo refuses to visit with her and Pedro respects his wishes until she blackmails him with photographic evidence of a nasty "tunnel bunny" tryst.Instead of transcribing yet another culture clash between gays and straights, each character is presented with depth, dimensionality and a revitalizing lack of sentiment.Teresa would want time with her grandson no matter what Pedro's sexuality. Were his condom-strewn, drug-soaked, sexually free-for-all ways centered on heterosexuality, grandma would have still found ways to blackmail.As in any good thirties programmer, crime and/or promiscuous behavior do not pay and the guilty must be punished. We learn that Pedro is HIV positive and thankfully he is allowed to live. It is particularly gratifying to leave a film that manages to transcend all that in lesser hands would be a ten-hankie male weepy. The director's honestly continually keeps the film from caving in under the weight of its own implications.Throw all the topical messages aside, for this is as much a film about lost love as "Citizen Kane." We exit the proceedings locked inside Teresa's gated burial grounds watching as an older Pedro and Bernardo leave her funeral. Death and imprisonment separate Bernardo from the two women in his life. Violeta and Pedro have come to terms with the impact she made on Bernardo's life, and it is only fitting that the last gaze before the final fade belongs to Teresa.

It's refreshing to see a movie that portrays "another" kind of gay man. Not the kind with the funny talk, the limb wrist and the feminine strut, but the kind with hair on his chest, a healthy pot belly and a full beard. Gay issues aside, this movie is as funny as it can get. The accent is a killer (for those who understand castilian Spanish) and the acting is superb. The unexpectedly orphaned child finds a surrogate father within the very active social life of his gay uncle, portrayed brilliantly by José Luis García Pérez. Pedro's (the uncle) friends are truly a funny bunch of friendly bears in the Madrid forest as they try to assist him in raising the child the best way possible; the best way they know. The grandmother, who adds a touch of "evil" in the story, doesn't seem to think so. Here's the true conflict. I totally recommend this movie to anyone gay, with a gay in the family or simply to anyone that wants to have a good time following this cachorro (bear cub) in his adventures with his fully developed bear-uncle.

It is good to see a movie neither 'demonize' nor 'victimize' gay people. This is an extraordinary movie about everyday relationships of ordinary person , some of whom happen to be bears.The characters in this film are flawed one way or another. But that's part of the charm: they all have their own problems like everyone else of us have and they are dealing with these problems like we all have to. Unlike many 'gay-themed' movies which focused on 'shock value', this movie is free from bitter or self-pity. It goes back to the basic friendship and family connection which is so brilliantly portrayed.I adore the bubbly attitude the movie holds. When bad things happened,drugs, jail, disease, people in this movie just deal with the bad fortune the simplest way. no mess, no fuss.It's clean and shinny , it's a breathe of fresh air from Europe.