BearCity

2010

1h 45m

Romance

Comedy

LGBTQ+

List

50%

Tomatometer

10 Reviews

54%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

A tight-knit pack of friends in New York's gay community experience comical mishaps and lusty encounters as they gear up for a weeklong celebration of all things "bear."

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Diego Semerene

Slant Magazine

Director Douglas Langway is aware that while bear-ness could be seen as a response to a culture obsessed with gender-conformant and hairless young bodies, it can also be a rather unoriginal one.

Rated: 1.5/4

Oct 24, 2010

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Andy Webster

New York Times

Of the crop of gay-centered features from TLA Releasing...the romantic dramedy BearCity certainly shows the most complexity.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 22, 2010

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Lou Lumenick

New York Post

Douglas Langway's middling comedy is sort of a Sex and the City for big, hirsute gay guys and the younger cubs who fancy them...

Rated: 2/4

Oct 22, 2010

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Sarah Boslaugh

Playback:stl

...Sex in the City meets Queer as Folk in New York City's bear scene.

Rated: 6/10

Jan 22, 2012

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Fr. Chris Carpenter

Movie Dearest

Enjoyable. The script...features nice, authentic repartee among the guys but can't quite decide whether to show the bear lifestyle as wholesome or debauched.

Rated: C+

Oct 24, 2010

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Adam Lippe

Examiner.com

With its voyeuristic gawking of faintly explicit sexual acts in a dark club setting, BearCity has more in common with William Friedkin's Cruising (made in 1980) than an upbeat modern film should.

Oct 22, 2010

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Audience Member

Despite its limitatitons, it's cute and features some really fun scenes (like the shower one, a classic NSFW)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

The directing is poor and the plot uncompelling, partly from being wearily predictable and partly because the stakes just aren't ever high enough. That said, the acting is decent, and the repartee of the characters is actually quite a lot of fun. Not an achievement in filmmaking, but (other than some extremely graphic polyamorous and kinky sex) a pleasingly innocuous way to beguile a little spare time.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

cute movie, if the end dragged on. Didn't think the 'bears' where that attractive.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

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Audience Member

You may want to think twice before moving to Bear City. The construction was a bit rushed and many of the locals suffer from a chronic case of horrible dialogue. I wonder if there's something in the water. I spent the entire movie wondering if this was rom-com or porn. Several times over the course of [yikes] two hours, characters take their clothes off for no reason. Who plays Wii Fit in the nude? Cub-hopeful Tyler spends most of his time grappling with the arbitrary bowling-as-sexual-maturity metaphor Bear-King Roger rams down his throat [figuratively - calm down] after they meet in the one magically empty bowling alley in Manhattan. [Are bears into bowling? Is that a thing?] "Make this spare, and we can be together." What's the billiards equivalent? "Make this bank shot, and I'm yours?" Dabbling-with-an-open-relationship couple Fred and Brent are the most realistic people in the movie [Brent gets all the best lines, one of which is simply "Insert joke here" - I like to think this was a placeholder in the script, and they ran out of time]. Carlos and Michael resolve their please-stay-fat differences so quickly you'll get whiplash. [Also I wonder if Carlos has read much about heart disease recently. Does Michael have an inheritance we don't know about?] Similarly, Roger gets scorned by this weekend's Latino treat and spins on his heel to realize he's always been in love with Tyler; at least, since the eight steps he's taken coming back from the darkroom. Was there a coach on the sidelines signaling "WRAP IT UP!" to everybody? You had two hours, guys. The "Bear City" main event - described as the biggest of its kind in NYC -- is 15 people hanging out in a backyard. Where's the Slip-N-Slide? I guess no one else was in Manhattan that day. Keep an eye out for a "Bear Makeover" shopping montage scene which I'm positive is someone's apartment with changing rooms made out of stacked boxes. Throughout the movie, the quality of lighting and composition change so drastically between each shot that you'll wonder if characters having a conversation were in the same room. Minutes before the movie concludes, the characters all take ecstasy. I understand the urge to turn to drugs as a desperate last effort to escape the amateurish slapdash trudge that is Bear City. Don't fill out that change-of-address card just yet... Mama's comin' home.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It`s a good movie beneath all the fur!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Many story lines, most are unbelievable and poorly acted. Stephen Guarino (Happy Endings) and his partner in the movie were the best actors, and had the best story line. Not a very good movie overall.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Douglas Langway

Director

Joe Conti

Tyler

Stephen Guarino

Brent

Brian Keane

Fred

Gregory Gunter

Michael

Sebastian La Cause

Fernando

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Synopsis

A tight-knit pack of friends in New York's gay community experience comical mishaps and lusty encounters as they gear up for a weeklong celebration of all things "bear."

Director: Douglas Langway
Screenwriter: Douglas Langway, Lawrence Ferber
Production Co: BearCity Limits
Genre: Romance, Comedy, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 7, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $6.0K
Runtime: 1h 45m

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