Boys Life 5 (2006)

The fifth installment in the successful series of gay-themed short films anthology collects four short films produced between 1990 and 2005. This collection avoids the alternating callow humor and dull self-seriousness of previous installments. Each feels like a first-rate mini-feature rather than a student experiment or a Hollywood audition.

In "Fishbelly White", directed by Michael Burke, alienated rural youth Duncan (Mickey Smith) mistreats farm animals and explores his homoeroticism with a hunky older boy (Jason Hayes), only to learn some harsh lessons about nonconformity. With its rural setting, offbeat protagonist, and less-is-more approach to both dialogue and sexual tension, this entry could hardly be confused for a typical gay indie. It features subtle insights into adolescence and sensuality. Burke uses "Fishbelly White" as the basis for his feature "The Mudge Boy".

"Dare" was written by David Brind and directed by Adam Salky. Hunky high-school star Johnny (Michael Cassidy) has the lead in the school play "A Streetcar Named Desire" but is having trouble remembering his lines. Nerdy "Light boy" Ben (Adam Fleming) likes to look at the very popular boy, and to spotlight him on stage. The irritated female lead of the play refuses to give her co-star a ride home, and "Light boy" volunteers. Once there, champagne gets opened poolside and both boys are soon in the pool, and the daring occurs. The final shot is deliciously sly. "Dare" offers the most explicitly gay subject matter of the collection, yet it shares with the other films a tension between childhood innocence and erotic awakening.

In "Late Summer", written and directed by David Ottenhouse, photographer Adam (Augustus Kelly) recounts the genesis of one of his photographs, in the process revealing much about his adolescent self (Erol Zeybekoglu). It begins in an art gallery with a photo show of Adam's work and proceeds to a lengthy flashback leading to an image not for sale. The photo shows the photographer's older cousin Josh (Christopher Nee) with whose family the photographer stayed after his parents' deaths. The younger Adam is hero-worshipping and shy, but not a pushover. The cousin goes skinny dipping, and he doesn't keep his shorts on as the boys in "Dare" do. Josh appears totally naked in the swimming home scene. But the film is restrained, with its gayness a matter of sensibility and subtext rather than overt content. This short is a rare example of a flashback story whose framing sequences actually add to its emotional heft, providing an intriguing suburban contrast to the farmland lyricism of "Fishbelly White".

"Time Off" was directed by American-born Israeli Eytan Fox. A soldier receives some unexpected insights into the private life of his dictatorial lieutenant. The "Time Off" of the title is between the end of basic training and deployment to Lebanon during the First Lebanon War in 1982. We see a lieutenant (Gil Frank) putting his men through annoying exercises. He seems to be picking on a pleasant-natured sensitive recruit named Yonatan (Hanoch Reim). On leave in the city, Yonatan wanders into a known gay pick-up spot and guess what? It was shot in Hebrew a decade before any of the other films. With its military setting and political backdrop, "Time Off" engages with the real world rather than just its characters' inner lives. Yet its subtlety and ambiguity fit in perfectly. Fox would go on to explore similar themes with the full-length "Yossi & Jagger".

The fifth and most consistently rewarding entry in the "Boys" Life series of anthologies focuses on the inner contradictions and unspoken longings of their protagonists. These four films collectively explore issues such as unrequited love and allow the "Boys Life" series to grow up. The bittersweet featurettes offer homosexual men a chance to identify with non-archetypal characters instead of drag-queen confidants or suicidal closet cases.

Cachorro (2004)

Pedro (José Luis García-Pérez) is an attractive gay dentist who lives a cosmopolitan life in Madrid. He's a well adjusted, kindly, and independent "bear" who thinks nothing of having his two best friends have sex in his bed while he takes a shower--sometimes even participating in a threesome. His older sister Violeta (Elvira Lindo), an ex-hippie, leaves her son Bernardo (David Castillo) to stay with Pedro when she impulsively decides to take a two-week jaunt to India with her latest boyfriend.

Soon the two form a strong attachment and their life together seems to be going well. Bernardo cooks for Pedro, but his nephew's presence forces him to take a break from his otherwise extremely active sex life. Even his boyfriend Manuel (Arno Chevrier), who suddenly pays Pedro a visit and who shares his penchant for leather and latex, is basically rejected. But when Doña Teresa (Empar Ferrer), Bernardo’s paternal grandmother, arrives on the scene, she begins to resent Pedro's closeness with the boy. Doña is a lonely and embittered old woman who blames Violeta for her son's drug-related death. She's also eager to re-establish a bond with her grandson, who doesn't like her. She's concerned about the influence that Pedro may be having on the boy and wants to take over Bernardo's upbringing by sending him to a private school in Valencia where he can learn English. The boy, however, is reluctant to leave his uncle and vows to stay with Pedro.

News arrives that Bernardo’s mother has been arrested in India for drug smuggling. She may be facing a prison sentence of thirty years, and Pedro is just as shocked at this news as Bernardo. Nevertheless, he realizes that he is now responsible for the boy. There suddenly are so many things to organize, such as repairs to the house and finding a school for the boy, that Pedro hardly misses the life he used to lead. Gradually he succeeds in rekindling his sex life, but in a less excessive form.

Then Doña demands custody of Bernardo. After illegally obtaining his medical history revealing that Pedro is HIV-positive, and hiring a private investigator who obtains pictures of Pedro at a gay club, she threatens him with both. Pedro lets her put Bernardo in a boarding school. When his grandmother goes to visit him and reveals Pedro's HIV status, Bernardo says that he already knew and that his mother is HIV-positive as well. She then reveals that Pedro is in the hospital with pneumonia. He tells her that he hates her and that it's her fault that he's in the hospital, because he wasn't there to care for him.

Three years pass, letters go back and forth between Pedro, Bernardo, his mother, and his grandmother. We then see Bernardo and his friends at a funeral, and a casket being lowered. Shortly after, a cab pulls up with Pedro in it, out of the hospital and healthy, then revealing that it was the grandmother's funeral they were attending. After a brief conversation, Bernardo goes and hugs and kisses his friends goodbye, then he and his uncle reunite and ride away in the cab together.

"Cachorro" defies all expectations and never passes judgment on any of the characters, not even on the villainous Doña Teresa. And there's no puritanical scorn about Pedro's supposed inappropriateness as a guardian and role model. In fact, Pedro goes out of his way to live his life as he would a single man: We see him going to bars, cruising back rooms, flirting with shop attendants in front of Bernardo, and even inviting his friends over for marijuana and coke-induced gatherings. The film also explores Pedro's relationship with a flight attendant and part-time lover who wants a commitment that Pedro is unwilling to make. Throughout all of this Bernardo is either oblivious to what is going on, takes it all in his stride, or even offers Pedro romantic advice.

There's a lot of love among Pedro's "bears", and though the movie is occasionally over-talky and light on the drama, there's still lots of warmth and humor. It's an important movie, groundbreaking because we are given an intelligent and perceptive insight into a part of the gay community that has been marginalized by the wider gay community. Bears are a sub-culture that have received little or no recognition in gay-themed movies. However, one viewer commented, "Don't be deceived by the blurb, because this isn't a nice gay film at all. On the surface it appears frothy, but underneath it's a sleazy film of betrayal, deceit, and a man's lost love that he'll never get back. It has it's funny moments, most of which you'll have seen on the trailer, but the rest is a gritty, rather sad little down-beat film that'll appeal to those who like it real." Lucio Godoy composed the incidental music. The screenplay was written by Salvador García Ruiz and Miguel Albaladejo, who also directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The Spanish word "cachorro" describes any young, furry animal such as a cub or puppy, and the English title is "Bear Club".