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Shelter

Shelter

Drama · 2014

Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.

Movie details

Shelter

2014 Drama 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Shelter?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Being Flynn

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Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

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Mammal

Mammal

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After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Ironweed

Ironweed

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An alcoholic drifter spends Halloween in his hometown of Albany, New York after returning there for the first time in decades.

Cardboard Boxer

Cardboard Boxer

Drama · 2016

Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

Bringing Out the Dead

Bringing Out the Dead

Drama · 1999

Once called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn't help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.

The Saint of Fort Washington

The Saint of Fort Washington

Drama · 1993

Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.

Urchin

Urchin

Drama · 2025

Mike, a rough sleeper in London, is trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as he attempts to turn his life around. Along the way, he encounters unexpected chances for a fresh start.

Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy

Drama · 1969

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Paul Bettany

Written by

Paul Bettany

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly

Hannah

Anthony Mackie

Anthony Mackie

Tahir

Amy Hargreaves

Amy Hargreaves

Carrie

Bruce Altman

Bruce Altman

Peter

Andrew Polk

Andrew Polk

Dr. Patel

Paul Urcioli

Paul Urcioli

Doctor

Teddy Cañez

Teddy Cañez

Station Officer

Court is in session

Put Shelter on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.