Bear Cub (Cachorro) (Spain 2004)

The Gist:

Pedro, content his life of friends and lovers, and most importantly no serious commitments, agrees to help his sister by taking care of his nephew Bernardo for two weeks while she is in India for a trip. When circumstances require Bernardo to stay longer, the boy's grandmother comes into the picture threatening to break up the new found bond between uncle and nephew and their fledgling family. 

Comments:

I've mentioned the "gays plus a kid makes a family" subgenera here before. This is sort of the same idea, but with a determinedly single man in place of a troubled gay couple and without the cliche of having the kid be a homophobic jerk. Actually, several gay flick cliches are avoided, resulting in a movie dealing frankly with sex, drugs, and AIDS amongst other issues. 

It's well done and worth a watch. Especially so if you're into bears of the big hairy man variety.

Women:

Family, neighbors, schoolmates. In other words, it does not ignore half the population. 

People of color:

Nope

Gratuitous nudity:

The movie starts off with a rather revealing "bear on bear" sex scene, so yeah, there's definitely skin of the big hairy man variety.

• Director: Miguel Albaladejo 
• Writers: Miguel Albaladejo
• Actors: Jose Luis Garcia Perez, David Castillo
• 99 min
• Spanish
• IMDB

BearCity (US 2010)

The Gist:

After accepting that what he really wants in life is a big hairy bear, a young man embraces the bear community, and is welcomed into a group of friends, each dealing with their own lives and issues. As he becomes more comfortable with his new life, our young gay (not especially bear-ish) protagonist works on getting a boyfriend, specifically the hottest, most popular (read: sluttiest), silver fox, "daddy" in town.

Comment with no important spoilers:

I wanted to like the movie a lot more than I did, but unfortunately there were a few too many issues for me to fully get into it. 

Mainly that there is just way too much going on. There are a couple movies worth of material here if not a short run TV show. In addition to the main story of protagonist chasing after his silver fox daddy; there is also an out-of-work chub guy deciding to lose weight by surgery, only to lose his hot chaser boyfriend instead; as well as gay couple deciding to try non-monogamy despite their concerns of what it may do to their relationship.

There are hints of interesting threads to follow, but not enough time to deal with them so things are dealt with only superficially or ignored. Why is the silver fox daddy so afraid of relationships?  Why is he so mean to the young guy? Will the young guy and the silver fox daddy deal with the fact that they are at least twenty years apart in age? These are just a few examples, and only from the main storyline, which is actually the least interesting of the three stories presented.

Another negative was that there were a few distracting technical/ low budget issues (jumbling day and night in the same scene always tends to throw me when noticeable).

On the other hand, the acting is relatively good and these are NOT the same stories that are told over and over again. 

At the very least this is worth a try… as long as you aren't bothered by naked, stocky, hairy men in sex scenes that is, because this movie abounds in sex scenes a la Queer as Folk (i.e., show everything but penis). 

Actually, I'd add another caveat, if the word husbear makes you cringe, this is probably not the best bear movie for you.  

Women:

Not really.

People of Color:

A couple

Gratuitous nudity:

Lots and lots of nudity and very hairy sex scenes.

• Director: Douglas Langway
• Writer: Douglas Langway
• Actors: Joe Conti, Christian Dante White, James Martines, Stephen Guarino
• 104 min
• Spanish
• IMDB