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If you missed Windy City Times’ presentation of the charming Bear Cub at the Chicago International Film Festival, you’ll have a chance to see it beginning this Friday, Dec. 3 at the Landmark Century. Director Miguel Albaladejo’s film (in Spanish with subtitles) is sort of a Spanish variation on the old TV sitcom, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. But in this case, it’s the little boy’s uncle who is single and constantly ‘dating.’ That the uncle is gay and more interested in lots of one-off sex with tricks he meets in bathhouses, parks and other illicit Madrid cruising spots will probably be more jarring for straight audiences than for gay.
That’s because the behavior of Pedro (Jose Luis Garcia-Perez) isn’t much different from single (and some partnered) gay men everywhere. He works as a dentist and has purposely remained unattached after the death of his longtime lover from AIDS. But he has a healthy sex appetite and like many gay men has obviously learned over the years to scratch his itch and compartmentalize it from the rest of his existence. Gay men worldwide long ago learned that when that ‘old clamoring demon’ calls it’s good to have the phone numbers of a few like-minded guys, or know the location of the nearest bookstore or public trysting place. To be honest, this behavior isn’t just confined to gay men—straight men of a certain ilk have been going on the ‘down low’ a lot longer than the term for sex on the sly has been around. But straight guys often have to hide it as well as pigeonhole it.
Albaladejo acknowledges the compartmentalizing idea from the outset (and it’s a repeated motif throughout the movie)—two ‘bears’ (heavyset, hairy homos) are getting it on while Pedro, who apparently has just been part of this three-way and gotten off, is now more interested in getting them out of his apartment so he can get ready for the arrival of his sister Violeta (Elvira Lindo) and 9-year-old nephew Bernardo (David Castillo), who’s going to stay with him while she goes on vacation in India. He rushes them out of his apartment and makes noncommittal noises about a rematch—though he doesn’t close the door, either.
Though hippie-dippy Violeta is very comfortable with her brother’s homosexuality (and she tells him seriously that she’s convinced Bernardo is gay as well)—Pedro at first seems uptight and cranky around Violeta. Very quickly, however, we see that Violeta is like a lot of those free spirits—fun for a while but irresponsible in the long run and prone to letting others down. It’s obvious that in the past she’s had trouble with drugs and Pedro has obviously come to her rescue. After a warning to be careful, and left alone with Bernardo, Pedro modifies his lifestyle until it becomes apparent that Violeta was right—Bernardo is a very accepting little kid.
Soon Pedro has figured out a way to integrate Bernardo into his large circle of ‘bear’ friends (which, based on the film’s definition of the term, includes hairless homos as well) and continue his roaming sex life on the side. Before long he and Bernardo have formed a very close bond when Violetta is busted for drugs and retained in India. When Violeta’s estranged mother, Dona Teresa (Empar Ferrer), shows up to try and enter her grandson’s life, a custody battle looms and the film seems poised to move into Kramer vs. Kramer territory.
But the end result—like the rest of the movie—doesn’t rely on the usual clichés and in the final analysis, Bear Cub deftly redefines family values and ‘gay cinema.’ This complex and bravely uninhibited drama is also alternately sexy, funny and deeply moving. www.landmarktheatres.com