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Sheltering Season Review
Image Credit: Vertical Entertainment
Loading...Sheltering Season Review
Caitlin Stryker– Lilly
Teach Grant– Rex
Bradley Stryker– Brooklyn
Olivia Cheng– Juniper
Patrick Gilmore– Gabriel
Agam Darshi– Sandra
Juan Riedinger– Diego
Aleks Paunovic– Thomas Milgard
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Bradley Stryker
Screenplay by Bradley Stryker
Distributed by Vertical Entertainment
Rated TV-MA for violence and language
Runtime– 80 minutes
Sheltering Season is currently available to watch for free on Tubi here
Sheltering Season, a new thriller written by, directed by, and featuring Bradley Stryker and currently available to watch for free on Tubi, is a fascinating thriller. Clearly inspired by the most paranoid aspects of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in terms of its setting, it sort of teases being a social science fiction movie at times, especially when we see the world the characters live in. At its heart, though, Sheltering Season is a movie about people who have experienced horrendous events and are consumed by grief as a result of those events, with it all being exacerbated by everything else happening in the world. It’s the kind of movie I really thought we would have more of in the aftermath of Covid-19.
Sheltering Season stars Caitlin Stryker as Lilly, a woman just trying to get through each day in a world that has drastically changed. When we first meet Lilly, she’s doing a Zoom call with her friends Juniper (Olivia Cheng), Gabriel (Patrick Gilmore), Sandra (Agam Darshi), and Diego (Juan Riedinger). Everyone on the call seems to be happy. Seems to be. Lilly’s husband Rex (Teach Grant), who is in a different location, eventually joins the call, too, but he isn’t happy at all. Something seems to be bothering him. Before he joined the call, we saw Rex digging a giant hole. Why the heck is he doing that? While all of that is going on, we find out that the world has been altered by some sort of virus pandemic, with quarantines, curfews, government surveillance, and armed militias battling police all over America (and, presumably, all over the world in some way). We also experience these strange flashbacks to what we assume was a better time (a young child is involved in most of these flashbacks). What the heck are those flashbacks about?
As the Zoom call progresses, a man named Brooklyn (Bradley Stryker) shows up at Lilly’s house. We then find out that Brooklyn is Lilly’s brother and that he was just released from a mental hospital. There’s an obvious tension between the siblings, but we’re not sure why. After Lilly lets Brooklyn into the house, she eventually reveals his presence to the people on the Zoom call. Everyone is surprised to see Brooklyn. Awkwardness ensues.
And while all of that is going on, Rex starts communicating with Lilly and tells her that Brooklyn needs to leave. Lilly tells Rex that she can’t make her brother leave as he has nowhere to go, but Rex insists that Brooklyn must leave and leave now. Lilly, again, won’t tell Brooklyn to leave. Brooklyn has nowhere to go. Rex eventually disappears from the Zoom call, and we see Rex leave the house he’s in and make his way towards Lilly. Rex will do whatever it takes to get back to his wife, including dodging and, if he has to, confronting the armed militias that are patrolling everywhere.
I don’t want to say any more about the plot, as I do think it’s important to experience the movie “as it happens.” I will say, though, that when the audience finds out why Rex is so upset about Brooklyn being around Lilly, your opinion about damn near everyone will change. And when you find out what the flashbacks, which get more and more intense as the movie progresses, your heart will break. The movie’s ending is likely going to divide people. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the way the movie ends. I can sort of see “both sides” of the inevitable argument that will ensue once enough people see the movie. Is it artistic? Sure. Is it “all about the journey, not so much about the destination?” You can certainly make that argument if you want to. Is the ending goddamn annoying? It might be, from certain viewpoints.
Lilly’s friends experience their own tension and conflict outside of the main issue between Lilly, Rex, and Brooklyn. Most of what Lilly’s friends experience has to do with the ongoing pandemic that has changed the world. One of them, Juniper, is outspoken about her opposition to everything everyone has to do as part of the quarantine process, while her partner Gabriel isn’t as upset about what people have to do. And Sandra and Diego have kids that they’re trying to raise while also dealing with the ups and downs of the pandemic (you can tell that they’re holding together as best they can and, in many ways, are probably handing the pandemic better than everyone else in their friend group). Every day people have to breathe into a device that’s hooked to their cell phones, and failure to do so will result in a visit by a government technician that has to take a sample from everyone in the house. No one wants to be visited by the government technician, not so much because the technician is a jackbooted thug (they’re not), it’s just annoying. There’s also all of the news and rumors about the armed militias that are both ruling over areas and fighting with the police. In short, it’s not an easy life to live.
Rex’s journey to get to Lilly is interesting because you’re not quite sure what to expect. Who or what will Rex run into while essentially boating down the river and running through the woods? Will there be violence? Just how bad will things get for Rex? And whatever Rex runs into and has to deal with, will it spill over onto his friends? There is some violence here, but it’s fleeting. This section of the movie is more about suspense and whether or not Rex will complete his journey. You’re not entirely sure he will. It really could go either way, success or failure. There’s also quite a bit of tension between Lilly and Brooklyn, mostly due to the big past event that informs their relationship. When you put all of that tension together, it creates a truly unsettling movie watching experience.
As for the whole pandemic setting, it seems to exist solely to create a situation for Rex to deal with as he makes his way back to Lilly and for something the other couples can argue about. I’m not entirely sure there’s a “political message” at work, although there could be and I’m just not seeing it. The pandemic could just as easily be a zombie apocalypse outbreak that people are dealing with (although if it was a zombie outbreak, the movie would have had to have a bigger cast so Rex could deal with zombies on top of the militias and the government authorities. It’s easier to keep production costs down if Rex just has to deal with militia people and government people). It is interesting how the story seems to take place “in the middle of a pandemic,” where there’s obvious tension and stuff happening but the world hasn’t completely fallen apart. We don’t see the start of the pandemic, where there’s massive unrest and people dying and institutions beginning to disintegrate, and the world hasn’t reached the point where it’s The Road Warrior. Things are still sort of “normal,” but not quite.
Why aren’t we seeing more pandemic inspired movies? For one thing, it might be too soon and the real aftermath of the pandemic needs to be discovered and figured out. And if you believe that the pandemic isn’t actually over (and there’s good reason to think that as people are still dying from Covid-19 and Covid-19 is still mutating), there’s no way to understand what it’s really all about until it’s over. The actual lockdowns that people experienced, especially in America, weren’t real lockdowns, as every country experienced and handled Covid-19 differently. At the moment, there’s no real universality about it beyond the pandemic happening. I also think you have to look back to how movies commenting on the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks weren’t all that successful at the box office. Some made money, most didn’t. General movie watching audiences just weren’t all that interested in “exploring” what all of that was really about (and it’s also possible that no one has come up with anything particularly interesting to say, pro-war or anti-war, about all of that. I think too many people thought Iraq 2003 was going to be like Vietnam part 2 and it really didn’t turn out that way). Basically, when it comes to the pandemic, it may just be that we’re not ready to talk about it yet in any meaningful way. That’s why we’re not seeing more movies like Sheltering Season. Give it another decade or so.
The performances are generally good across the board. Caitlin Stryker does a great job as Lilly. You can tell from the beginning that she just wants to live a happy life and get through each day as best she can. She loves talking to her friends. And even when things start getting strange or bad or weird, she still wants to hang on to that idea of living her best life. You can’t help but root for her. When you find out what’s going on with her husband Rex and what’s really going on with Brooklyn, you root for her even more.
Teach Grant does a fine job as Rex, Lilly’s concerned husband. At first, you have no idea if you can trust him at all because you have no idea what his deal is. Why is he digging a hole? Why is he late for a Zoom call with his wife and friends? And when he does join the Zoom call, why does it seem like he doesn’t want to be there? And how the hell did he hook up with Lilly? You never really root for him until you find out what’s really going on, and even then you’re not entirely sure that you should. Can you completely trust him? Very watchable. And check out the way he deliberately breaks his thumb. Insane.
Bradley Stryker, doing triple duty as writer, director, and featured actor, is fascinating as Brooklyn. At first, you’re sort of sympathetic to Brooklyn because he seems like a gentle, maybe even misunderstood, guy. He was in a mental hospital? Why? He seems pretty harmless. But then why is Lilly, his sister, so standoffish with him? Why is she so tentative with him? What is really going on with him? As the movie progresses, you do find out what Brooklyn’s deal is, and then you get to decide if you want to root for him, too. How you end up feeling about Brooklyn will likely influence how you feel about the ending. As for Stryker as a director, he does a good job keeping things moving (the movie is only 80 minutes long), and that’s the best thing to have for a movie like Sheltering Season. Keep it moving.
Olivia Cheng does a nice job as Juniper, who is probably the angriest character in the entire movie (and that includes all of the militia people). There’s a part of you that wants to think that she’s so angry because of how much she drinks and is just generally frustrated with life. Things are just not working out the way she wanted and hoped and she doesn’t know how to handle it. But is that what she’s really all about? It isn’t entirely clear. It’s quite possible that Juniper is just an angry person, and having to live in a world that inspires anger isn’t the best thing for her or anyone around her. Patrick Gilmore, as Juniper’s husband Gabriel, certainly seems like a guy that just wants to get through the day and has no interest in being as angry as Juniper. It’s sort of a “someone has to be the levelheaded one here” kind of deal. You could easily make some sort of open ended domestic drama with Juniper and Gabriel, where it’s all about them and it would likely be entertaining. How often does that kind of thing happen in a movie?
Agam Darshi and Juan Riedinger do an okay job as Sandra and Diego, the couple with kids. The movie doesn’t do as much with them as Juniper and Gabriel, but what they do is interesting enough. They are living a very different life compared to their friends. A very different life.
Sheltering Season is a fascinating thriller. That really is the best way to describe it. Fascinating. It moves along quite well, it has a good cast, and it’s generally entertaining throughout. The ending is going to divide people, though. Is the ending justified, or should the movie have done something else? Again, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. I’ll have to think about it. I did like the movie, though. It is worth checking out.
See Sheltering Season. See it, see it, see it. Sheltering Season is currently available to watch for free on Tubi.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: 1
Explosions: None.
Nudity?: None.
Doobage: News reports about a virus pandemic. A kid jumping in slow motion into a puddle. Toy truck washing. Stuffed rhino drying. Hole digging. A Zoom call. Off screen militia stuff. Talk about booze drinking. Talk of various variants. Multiple happy flashbacks. Multiple verbal attacks against yoga. A flashback featuring a fire. Talk of “the fourth wave.” A back massage. Rock fondling. Phone stuff. Serious booze drinking. Radio hooey. A hidden boat. Implied pot smoking. Attempted sex. Wild dancing. A fire off in the distance. Chip eating. Shelf touching. Hiding under a bridge. Cigarette smoking. Talk about a nurse that slit her wrists. Pepper spray to the eyes. Sleeping pills. Deliberate thumb breaking. Zip tie hooey. Tranquilizer dart hooey. Off screen bottle breaking. Wine glass breaking. Accidental finger cutting. Machine gun attack. A hidden gun. A medicine bag. Zoom arguing. Attempted broken glass cleaning. A gunshot.
Kim Richards? Off screen big time.
Gratuitous: American flag sunglasses. People playing in piles of dead leaves. A kid named Leopold. Multiple flashbacks. On screen text messages. A bad story about Mississippi. A virus detector that’s hooked up to your phone and that people have to breathe into once a day. A curfew alarm. Speaking Spanish. Virus Enforcement Agency. A kid sitting in a cardboard box. 5G conspiracy bullshit. A laser sight. Sudden opera on the soundtrack. A potentially divisive ending.
Best lines: “Didn’t you shave your head? Yeah. Day eighteen.” “Did you run into any of those militia nut jobs out there?” “June? June, you can’t do that. That’s considered racist.” “Rex, is that whiskey?” “It looks like I have a bit of a surprise.” “I’m sorry, I owe you a glass of water.” “I don’t trust him!” “Holy shit, Lilly, are you okay?” “BK, remember when you had that mullet?” “Has Rex broken curfew before?” “She still does this?” “I still can’t believe you do this.” “Thank you. Fuck you. That was completely unnecessary.” “I thought my beer could use a sidecar.” “That sounds like a nightmare, not a dream.” “When your life becomes a living nightmare, one tends to seek joy in the darkest of corners.” “Since when do you log anyone into the system?” “Hey, was that blood?” “Goddamit, June!” “Juniper, I am trying to help you.” “What’d I miss? Shut up.” “Lilly? Lilly? Fuck!” “You know, being a parent doesn’t make you a better person than me.” “Whatever. Fuck you all. I’m going to bed.” “I will give you until the count of five. If you don’t pull your trigger, I will pull mine.” “Put the fucking gun down, BK!”
