Shelter

This has got to be the best film I've seen at the San Francisco LGBT film festival in years. The director and cast were in attendance at the world premiere and they were given a worthy standing ovation. Writer/director Jonah Markowitz did a fantastic job of flushing out real characters. Trevor Wright was a real natural and convincing as someone struggling to come out. He really made you feel his pain. The story about his codependent sister is dead-on. Brad Rowe is like a young Greg Kinnear. You can't help liking him. The soundtrack was excellent and I hope to see it released. This is the first film from here! Network and I hope to see more of this quality. Incidentally, I've noticed on the IMDb search that there are two other films being released in 2007 with the title "Shelter" and there a half dozen films in the past with the same title. Also, on the allmovie guide (AMG) site there is an Italian film with the same title. Interesting enough, that film is being shown at the SF LGBT festival and was changed to Shelter Me. Hopefully, the "surfer gay movie" will stand out.

This film is inspiring and the acting is superb. Trevor Wright does an amazing job in making us believe he is struggling to be everything to his family while dealing with his sexuality. Brad Rowe is also incredible. Casting him with Trevor was perfect. They are a true couple in this story. Jonah will go far in his career if he continues to make outstanding films like this one! Nice job to here! Networks for producing such quality work. I would like to know how Jonah came up with the idea for Shelter? As the film gets distributed in theaters, I also hope it makes it to GLBT youth programs so that young audiences can see this film, and be proud of who they are.

I saw this the other night at a screening in NYC...wasn't even going to go but decided at the last minute to go and so happy I did. This movie completely surprised me and impressed me. Wonderfully directed, great script and spot on acting. Absolutely the best gay themed movie I've seen since Brokeback Mountain and in some ways surpasses that movie. How refreshing to see a film that deals with gay characters and none of them have a disease or are all about sex. Not that there's anything wrong with that but it's about time we see more movies that represent the ENTIRE spectrum of the gay community. The situations here were believable...the two leads had actual chemistry and there was an overall realism to it that we've rarely seen on screen with gay characters. This film has absolute mainstream appeal to it...Go see it and bring your friends!

What an amazing movie about love, family, and relationships. It was great to watch a film that used characters that stepped outside of the gay stereotypes seen in most films. It was even better to see a movie that focused on the love (rather than the sex) between the two lead characters.

While there are some scenes that scream "low budget," the end product as a whole was very rewarding. The acting, writing, and directing were all solid.

After so many disappointing gay films, I'm thrilled to have a movie like this come along. If this is a sign of things to come in gay cinema, then I am excited about future films. If you haven't seen "Shelter" yet, go give it watch. You'll be glad you did. Enjoy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Brokeback Mt., but I saw a screening of this film at the SF Gay and Lesbian Film Festival tonight and loved it as much as BBM and in some ways appreciated it more. At the Q & A after the screening the producer mentioned that the production company exec who green-lighted the project said he wanted to make "the anti-Brokeback," and in this I think they have succeeded magnificently. This is a genuine, heartfelt story about gay love minus all the tragedy and shattered lives. Which isn't to say there's no drama... Let's just say that some characters in the story have some problems, but mostly they're not a direct result of the love story at the film's core. For my money the acting (with avowed heterosexuals playing the gay roles, as in BBM) was more convincing, the kissing more natural, the sex scenes extremely sexy and moving; another milestone in the realistic portrayal of gay love and sex. The family setting provided a context that allowed one man's coming out story to be just one among many changes all families go through together while simultaneously putting some evil homophobic stereotypes to bed, you should pardon the expression, rather than dwelling on them as in BBM. Bravo to the filmmakers and excellent cast, and I hope you get a chance to see it soon if you weren't lucky enough to be among the 1400 people at the Castro theater tonight. Oh, and the lead actors are drop dead gorgeous and playing surfers. Enough said.