Netflix Movie Review: The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Sunday, April 27th, 2008As promised, I spent most of Saturday lying in bed. I’m almost caught up on my LSAT class homework, so I’m not even feeling guilty. Tomorrow I have to get to the gym, though, so no lazy Sunday.
The NetFlix fairy brought me The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, which I’d forgotten was even in my queue from my “are there any gay movies I haven’t seen yet” adding spree. Anyway, Ethan Green is based on a long-running queer comic strip by Eric Orner. The movie adaptation stars Daniel Letterle (a.k.a. Isn’t that the kid from CAMP all growed up with chest hair?!?) as Ethan and a parade of mostly unknown actors in various beefcake roles. Richard Riehle and Joel Brooks as the hat sisters are hilarious, though, and although not household names, they both have long and impressive acting records and are of the Hey-Wasn’t-That-That-Guy-In-That-Thing kind of fame. And Meredith Baxter plays Ethan’s mom, a supportive, hip, happy homo-loving mother.
The movie was pretty seriously panned by the critics as being too, well, unfabulous. I admit that the flick is a long way from winning any awards–the acting is uneven, the humor too broad, and the characters are inconsistently two-dimensional. I didn’t hate it though. I’ve suffered through much, much worse films that are more widely loved. The Matrix trilogy springs to mind. Or almost anything starring Will Ferrell… let’s go with Elf for the purpose of this review.
The final word: I’d be happy to add it to my permanent collection of sappy queer romantic comedies. I’d suggest you go ahead add it to your NetFlix, too.
I finally watched this the other night with Powder, and I enjoyed it a lot less than you did. I think my main problem with it is how completely unlikable I found Ethan. Part of it I think has to do with the fact that it was based on a comic book…I enjoyed a lot of the campy directorial choices and I really thought I’d love it based on the first few minutes, particularly thanks to the nifty credits sequence. But I found the scene where Ethan first dumped his boyfriend completely unbelievable, and then could not believe that the film wanted me to root for him throughout his whiny angst for the rest of it, when he’s the one who sabotaged the relationship, for no real reason. I kind of get what the filmmakers were trying to do with his character and how his reaction to his boyfriend finally making the commitment he’d wanted him to might be funny as the punchline to a comic strip…and maybe a better actor could have sold the scene better. But Daniel Letterle is a pretty sucky actor, and certainly isn’t strong enough to carry a film, even a low-budget crappy gay film like this one. That’s not to say I completely hated it…At times, I found myself kind of enjoying the ride–the last 20 minutes, with all the guys showing up at his place, like an old bedroom farce, for example; the Hat Sisters; the really young guy who was full of himself–but overall, I couldn’t imagine myself ever watching it again. I really just wanted to punch Ethan in the face, heh.
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