Jonah Markowitz Movies
Love brings together two men who aren't sure where to fit a relationship into their lives in this romantic drama. Living in the oceanfront working-class community of San Pedro, Zach (Trevor Wright) is a young man in his early twenties who has been forced into the role of emotional anchor for his dysfunctional family; his mother his dead, his father is too ill to work, his sister Jeannie (Tina Holmes) is too busy partying to look after her five-year-old son Cody (Jackson Wurth), and Zach is the only one with the wherewithal to hold down a job and keep the rent paid. He's sacrificed his dream of attending CalArts in order to help Jeannie raise Cody. Between cooking at a diner and looking after Cody, Zach has little in the way of spare time, but as often as he can he heads to the beach to indulge his passion for surfing. While hanging out with his surfing buddy Gabe (Ross Thomas), Zach meets Gabe's brother, the struggling homosexual writer Shaun (Brad Rowe), who has taken a break from Tinseltown while rebounding from a dysfunctional relationship. Shaun goes surfing with Zach one day, and the two discover they're powerfully attracted to one another, and a flirtation turns into a love affair. As Shaun has to explain to his girlfriend why he no longer wants to be with her, Zach tries to make Jeannie and his father understand why he's come out of the closet. Shelter was produced for the gay and lesbian-oriented cable television network Here, though it enjoyed a brief theatrical release before its broadcast premiere. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, (more)
A true story of tragedy, hope, and resilience comes to the screen in this sports drama. Huntington, WV, is home to Marshall University, a school where college football is a way of life. Huntington is also a town that learned to deal with tragedy in the fall of 1970 when Marshall's "Thundering Herd" boarded an airliner to return home after a football game in North Carolina. The jet crashed into a hill due to bad weather, and 75 members of Marshall's football squad and athletic staff died that night. The accident dealt a crippling blow to the city of Huntington, as well as Marshall's faculty and student body, and university president Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considered abandoning the school's football program. But instead Coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) was recruited from Ohio's College of Wooster to rebuild Marshall's football program. Lengyel was not naïve about the task ahead of him, and working beside Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), an assistant coach who narrowly missed the doomed flight and was one of the program's only survivors, he came to understand his job was not just to put a team on the field, but help a college and a community heal their wounds from the tragic accident. Together Lengyel and Dawson turned a handful of rookies and second-string players into a competitive team who in 1971 showed the world what they could do in a legendary game against Marshall's rivals, Xavier University. Produced with the cooperation of Marshall University and filmed in part on their campus, We Are Marshall also stars Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, and January Jones. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, (more)
Two friends who've convinced themselves they would never make a good couple discover they might just be wrong in this romantic comedy. Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily (Amanda Peet) first met when they were college students sharing a flight from California to New York; Emily spontaneously seduced Oliver on the plane, and they spent the next few days together in the city. When they parted, however, Emily decided not to pursue a relationship with Oliver, even though he was obviously interested. Over the next several years, circumstances kept putting them in one another's paths, and over the years Oliver and Emily became close friends and confidantes. Both are still certain, though, that they're entirely wrong for each other on a romantic level. However, after nearly a decade, with both Oliver and Emily edging into their thirties, they begin to wonder if they've allowed a great opportunity to pass them by. A Lot Like Love also stars Kathryn Hahn, Ali Larter, and Kal Penn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, (more)
A Hispanic teenager travels the rough road to adult responsibility earlier than she expected in this independent drama. Magdalena (Emily Rios) is a young Latina who is looking forward to her upcoming quinceaqera celebration -- the 15th birthday party that marks the passage into adulthood for Mexican-American women. Magdalena's expectations are raised by the lavish party her older cousin Eileen (Alicia Sixtos) gets for the occasion, but Magdalena's mother (Araceli Guzman-Rico) and father (Jesus Castanos-Chima) insist on a lower-key affair that will focus on the more responsible aspects of grown-up life. However, Magdalena gets a crash course in that subject when she discovers she's pregnant with the child of her boyfriend, Herman (J.R. Cruz); life at home becomes unbearable for her, and she leaves to live with her more sympathetic uncle, Tio Thomas (Chalo Gonzalez). Home for Tio Thomas and Magdalena is a small apartment in a building owned by James (Jason L. Wood) and Gary (David W. Ross), a gay couple looking to gentrify the neighborhood. Magdalena strikes up a friendship with her cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia), a roughneck teen with a good heart who is also on the outs with his family when they discover he's experimenting with his sexuality. Produced in part by Todd Haynes, Quinceaqera received its premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emily Rios, Jesse Garcia, (more)
