Arts & EntertainmentFilm/DVD

Grin & Bear It

Wild Kingdom: Tyler (Joe Conti, second from right) goes hunting for bears in writer/director Douglas Langway’s feel-good, furry tribute to another subculture of the LGBT community.

The furry and fuzzy ‘BearCity’ comes to DVD
by Steven Foster

In gay cinema subculture, drag queens have received the lion’s share of screen time. Documentaries like Paris Is Burning or comedies such as Priscilla: Queen of The Desert have skewed audience attention toward the cross-dress set.

But with BearCity, hirsute is the costume of choice. Especially for the young twink Tyler (Joe Conti) who discovers he’s just not that into the pretty, plucked, and primped men of mainstream gay culture. This revelation posits Tyler into the world of the gentle grizzly, like a sort of neophyte sexual Marlin Perkins, exploring all the appropriately rainbow-diverse species and stereotypes Bear Land has
to offer.

Still, Tyler’s swooning over Roger (Gerald McCullouch) resembles silver-fox attraction more closely than true ursine lust. (McCullouch looks more like Anderson Cooper’s butcher, older brother, so it’s difficult to imagine who wouldn’t jump barbwire fences to play Boo Boo to this Yogi.)

Released earlier this year, BearCity snagged the Los Angeles OutFest Grand Jury Prize for screenwriting for co-writer (and frequent OutSmart contributor) Lawrence Ferber. Using bear culture might be a cinematic conceit, but it’s one whose time has come. Besides, one look at the douchebaggy fame whores of Logo’s The A-List, and it’s easy to see why Tyler would find bears so appealing.

Steven Foster is a regular contributor to OutSmart magazine.

Comments

Ste7en Foster

Steven Foster is a regular contributor to OutSmart Magazine.

Leave a Review or Comment

Back to top button