Review of Shelter (2007) by Christopher L — 04 Apr 2008

Last year, at the St. Louis International Film Festival, I saw "Shelter," and being an openly gay college freshman, I have seen many coming-of-age/coming-out LGBT films and am usually disappointed in most of them.

The going formula for these movies have been "a young, confused teenage boy needs help from an older man to discover his sexuality despite the objections from his family, ending with him being cut-off (sometimes eventually reconciled) with his family and living a decadent life with this older someone.

" My problem with these movies are that I have always felt that they are not setting a good example for LGBT teenagers who would rather pursue a more wholesome life rather than the late-night rendevous offered in these films.

When I began watching "Shelter," I was getting that impression, but how it ended astonished me. Instead of a possibly unhealthy relationship based on sex, the film offers a family. It is true that the performances are slightly two dimensional, with the remarkable exception of Brad Rowe, but "Shelter" does not get lost amongst the ranks of embarrassingly offensive films like "The Edge of Seventeen," but rather paints a warm picture that offers a grand statement to those who fight for marriage and adoption rights for the LGBT community.