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Reviews
A Heaven for Queers (2011)
Unique look at gay teens, Christianity ... and dingleberrys!
Matthew is an inexperienced gay teen, a byproduct of an evangelical Christian upbringing that instilled guilt and repression as a seeming fact of life for him. A hidden porn magazine is discovered by his best friend, Brandon who turns out to be gay as well. Unfortunately, they are discovered by Matthew's father, who informs Brandon's parents. Matthew is sent away, and the two of them reunite at an ex-gay conversion camp for teens, which they manage to survive and return home. Brandon refuses to lie to his mother about having been "converted" to heterosexuality, and is thrown out of his home. Matthew decides to leave with him, and they attempt to put together a life together. They have better luck than most gay teen runaways, but the film makes it clear the risks and perils they face.
This is one of the strangest gay films I have ever seen. It addresses the "gay and Christian" message on an extremely simplistic level, which I personally feel most viewers would consider a bit condescending. This ambitious film includes several unexpected animated and musical sequences, likely meant to teach as well as entertain ... but one can only deal with so many verses of songs like "Jesus Is In My Pants" or "The Dingleberry Song." The cute, twinkish couple (played by Aaron Judge and Alex "Bear City" DiDio) do a commendable job with dialog that invites a lot of eye-rolling on the part of the viewer. However, I did find the frequent explicit sexual dialog a bit off-putting in a supposed "message" film such as this. (There is no full nudity, and this unrated film would be a heavy R due to sexual content, dialog and simulated sex.) I got my DVD from Amazon, which is the only place I could find it for sale. Including an extra for the effort made, I'll give it five stars out of ten.
BearCity 2: The Proposal (2012)
Fan of first film, disappointed in this one.
Musclebear Roger and his twinkish boyfriend Tyler (who became a couple in the original 2010 "Bear City" film) decide to take advantage of NY's new gay marriage bill, despite some initial misgivings on Tyler's part. Since they and most of their friends had already planned to be in Provincetown for "Bear Week," they decided to hold the nuptials there, staying in a guest-house owned by Rose (Kathy Majimy), mother of their friend Brent (Stebem Guarino, who is one of the few bright spots in this misguided sequel). Lots going on amid the craziness in P-Town, including Brent and his partner interviewing attendees for a "bear documentary", and another couple making plans to open a new "bear bar" in NYC.
The middle part of the film seems like a P-Town tourist promotion, with local attractions and huge crowds also (over)filled with marginal gay celebrities, from Kevin Smith to Frank DeCaro, Jason Stuart to Mike Ruiz, Mark Caruso and even Lt. Dan Choi, making this seem more like a vanity project than any attempt at a cohesive story. We do learn that, even within the bear community, there is an element of discrimination between "muscle bears" and their more portly brethren, except that both groups are equally unable to be monogamous in a relationship. Tyler meets a chubby bear he seems to develop a connection with, and Roger spends time with an ex he previously swore he never wanted to see again. SPOILER ALERT -- The ending was not what I was expecting, and somewhat disappointing, although I suppose it illustrated a valuable lesson ... that two men should not decide to get married simply because their state decides they now CAN do so.-- END SPOILER
Besides the casting issues, the film seems disjointed in terms of pacing, more a series of skits than telling a story. Some scenes clearly go on way too long, and add nothing to the film other than additional minutes. Some funny bits are milked too long (such as people calling Tyler's father, who is there for the ceremony, "Daddy", and how a threesome of bears next door needs a really large bed). Most of all, the assorted disagreements and uncomfortable confrontations often overshadow the camaraderie of the bear community, which was an important selling point in the original film.
As if the film doesn't have enough problems on its own, the movie makers are making it more difficult to obtain, by choosing to bypass all usual gay-friendly retailers, and only sell it directly via their website. (I suspect this may also be an attempt to keep it off sites where users provide reviews that could affect a decision to buy!) They further discourage sales by quoting inflated "list prices" and using a complicated (and seemining changing every week) series of discounts for the DVD, BlueRay, download and streaming, which few will have the patience to figure out. DVD has a "making of" featurette, deleted scenes, director commentary and music videos. Not rated, would be a heavy R for sexual content (No nudity). I'm somewhat generous in giving it five stars out of ten.