Product Description

Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach spends his days working a dead end job and helping his needy sister care for her son. In his free time he surfs, draws and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe, who lives on the wealthy side of town. When Gabe's older brother, Shaun, returns home, he is drawn to Zach's selflessness and talent. Zach falls in love with Shaun while struggling to reconcile his own desires with the needs of his family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
The feature-film debut from art director Jonah Markowitz (Quinceañera) pivots on the tension between responsibility to family and responsibility to self. Recent high-school graduate Zach (Trevor Wright) has one summer to reconcile the competing halves of his life. The aspiring Picasso lives in blue-collar San Pedro with his irresponsible sister, Jeanne (Tina Holmes, Half Nelson), her five-year-old son, Cody (Jackson Wurth), and their rarely-seen father. Zach gave up his art school dreams to toil in a diner and help look after his much-loved nephew. With his best friend, Gabe (Ross Thomas), away at college, Zach draws, surfs, and skateboards by his lonesome. When Gabe's novelist brother, Shaun (Brad Rowe, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss), returns to his Orange County home to recover from a broken heart, he and Zach alternate between riding the waves and encouraging each other to pursue their aspirations. Shaun is gay, while Zach appears to be straight, but a casual kiss between the two soon leads to a secret relationship. Before the former returns to Los Angeles, the latter has to decide who he is--gay, straight, artist, cook, uncle, or father--and what he's going to do about it. Except for the location shooting, this low-budget indie plays like an extended episode of The O.C. what with all the "bro"s and "dude"s and love scenes tame enough for network TV. Nonetheless, Markowitz's heart is in the right place, and Shelter may provide some real-life Zachs with the courage they need to follow their passions. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

much more than average
wonderful movie about a guy who is torn between his family and his new found love. Brad Rowe, who plays his role very convincing, and Trevor Wright are magnificient.

The Trap
As always in 'gay themed' movies there is the definite temptation to play the party boy/drug user/AID victim card. It's incredibly refreshing to find a movie that doesn't pander to traditional gay male stereotypes. There have been a lot of things said here about this movie already, some incredibly insightful. Rather than try to struggle for the usual explicatives, I'll just say how & why this movie moved and touched my soul.

There were a lot of plots and subplots going on here; poverty, desperate lives being crushed and yet there was always the glimmer of hope on the horizon, art, angst of coming out and the poignancy of first time/unconditional love. And of course, how utterly exquisite to truly portray how much a sport can mean to a male and how it can anchor us even in the craziest of times. Although my life has been somewhat different, I can relate to so many levels and pieces of this movie that it's scary and uncanny at the same time. All of it...to come out as an adult when formally you've been in hiding with all your friends, to catch that one last run of the day as you chase the sun...to have the freedom (for the first time) to really love somebody of the same sex that you were always meant to love in the first place. I lived this movie through both the main characters because I've been both the main characters as I lived through poverty with hopeless, broken dreams and a unwavering loyalty to 'family', while discovering true love in the midst of chaos and ashes.

And through it all, Zack's mural was his life; his frustration, his intense sadness, his trap, his love of family, the angst of being misunderstood by everyone and finally the sublime happiness of new-found love. It's all there, the life of a man painted on a wall for the world to witness and see.

This isn't a perfect movie by any means; the 'sex scene' was stilted and phony, yet the tender kissing scenes where as good as they can get. Truly, both the main actors are gifted to pull off such a believable gay love story. But this is a movie that you have to take in it's entirety and not something subject to be picked apart scene by scene. There were times when I shouted at the screen and times when I teared up. The relationship with Shaun and Zack's little brother (Cody) was magnificently portrayed. It's not publicized enough how fluid and positive gay men can be around impressionable boys. The homophobic ignorance portrayed is painfully accurate in this movie; with respect to how many parents/adults think that young boys hanging around with a gay role model is 'just not right'.

I've probably seen 150+ gay themed movies in the last three yrs and this one is absolutely in the top tier of my mental queue list. Rent it, buy it and just enjoy it! God, please give us more movies like this one.

Is it worth buying... YES!
I found the movie to be very touching and meaningful. Most Gay themed movies tend to be poorly made and not enough effort put into them but Shelter is an awesome movie. Anyone can relate to this movie its not just made for a target audience. I have recommended it to about 7 friends so far, its a treat and should be in everyones DVD library!