• ALL
  • NEWS
    • GAY MOVIE/ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
    • GAY FILM TRAILERS
    • GENERAL MOVIE NEWS & TRAILERS
  • GAY SHORTS & SERIES
  • REVIEWS
    • GAY FILM REVIEWS
    • CINEMA REVIEWS
    • DVD & BLU-RAY REVIEWS
  • BGPS BLOG
  • COMPS
  • ABOUT
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Gays On Film – A Short History

Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Shelter (Blu-ray)

November 22, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes, Jackson Wurth
Director: Jonah Markowitz
Running Time: 85 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: 24th October, 2011

The second of TLA’s Blu-ray releases (the other being Latter Days), the 2007 romantic drama Shelter gets an HD upgrade. The film stars Trevor Wright as Zach, a young man finding his feet in life in a small Californian town. Despite a desire to go off to art college, he’s slightly trapped by his sister, who relies on him to help her look after her son and treats him as if he’s obliged to be a surrogate father to her kid and has no choice in the matter.

Things begin to change when Zach’s best friend’s brother, Shaun (Brad Rowe), returns to the town. What initially starts out as a friendship develops into something deeper, with Zach finally finding someone he can express himself with and who seems to believe in him and his dreams. However with Zach still in the closet and pressure mounting on him from his homophobic sister and her increasingly selfish desires, working class life butts up against artistic dreams, and it may not be a romance that can survive.

While Shelter is a pretty small scale romance, the reason it succeeds and has fast become a gay cinema favourite is that it sticks close to the emotional core of its story, and does a great job of creating characters you can empathise with. While it’s a core staple of movies to wrestle emotion from the audience by trading in noble self-sacrifice, Shelter comes at things from the other direction and paints self-sacrifice as stifling and oppressive, suggesting that eventually it can actually become the selfish thing (Ayn Rand would be proud). It an interesting take on things, and actually quite rare in film to see it done well.

It’s also good to see a gay film that has some nice subtle touches – not something queer cinema is renowned for – with things such as Zach revealing that he knows Shaun is gay and their first acknowledgment they have feelings for one another handled in a low-key way that’s actually more emotionally involving than making it all unnecessarily overwrought.

If all this makes it sounds like it’s some sort of objectivist philosophical treatise, don’t worry, it isn’t. In fact it’s mainly just a very sweet, moving little romance that does what it sets out to do very well and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy by the end. In fact there’s a slightly by-the-numbers feels about some of it, even if more is going under the surface than first appears. There’s also plenty of buff guys stripped to the waist (a beachside location is always helpful for that), which is never a bad thing!

It’s a shame Trevor Wright hasn’t found more fame than he has, as he puts in a great performance in Shelter and deserves more success. His highest profile gig since Shelter has been playing ‘B.U. Guy in Bra’ in The Social Network, although he did get bigger roles in the straight-to-DVD sequels Vacancy 2 and 2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams. However he’s very good here and really rather cute.

Overall Verdict: A sweet romance with a emotionally affecting core. It is indeed a film worth taking shelter in.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Wanna share?:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • More
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • WhatsApp
Overall Rating 7outof10

Related

Filed Under: DVD and BLU-RAY REVIEWS, GAY FILM REVIEWS

Leave a Reply (if comment does not appear immediately, it may have been held for moderation)Cancel reply

Search this site:

We're Needy, Be Our Friend

RSSTwitterFacebookStumbleUponMySpace

E-maily Stuff

Get the latest in our daily e-mail

Most Recent Posts

Young Hunter Trailer – First teen gay love takes a dark turn into blackmail

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Trailer – The hit gay, drag West End musical is coming to the screen

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 3 (Short Film Reviews)

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 2 (Short Film Reviews)

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 1 (Short Film Reviews)

The Scottish Queer International Film Festival 2020 Has Opened, & It’s Online Across The UK

The Iris Prize LGBT Short Film Festival Returns Next Week, & It’s Online & Free!

An Apology From Big Gay Picture Show

Win The Miseducation of Cameron Post DVD & Book!

Seventeen Trailer – The vagaries of teen romance erupt in the lesbian-themed film

My Best Friend Trailer – Gay romance flickers between two teen boys

New Sauvage Trailer – The gay prostitute movie that divided Cannes is coming soon

We're Needy, Be Our Friend

RSSTwitterFacebook

E-maily Stuff

Get all the latest from BGPS in our daily e-mail

Blogroll

  • Blinkbox – Gay & Lesbian
  • DoorQ
  • Movie Muser
  • Peccadillo Pictures
  • Peccapics Blog
  • TLA Gay (UK)
  • TLA Releasing (UK)
  • TQS Magazine

Copyright © 2023 Muser Media · Powered by WordPress & Genesis Framework · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read More Accept Reject
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT