Bill Henry reviews “The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green”

by Bill Henry on Aug.11, 2006, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews

The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Directed by George Bamber
Coming out in select theatres 8/11/2006

When I worked in the city, I used to routinely pick up the Washington Blade, the District’s gay weekly (OK, Seinfeld fans on the count of three: one-two-three-”Not that there’s anything wrong with it.”). It had two things that I generally like in a publication: it was free and it had a lot of news, features, etc. not found elsewhere. The Blade and I came to a parting of the ways over the whole price thing, when they felt I should start paying for their paper and I preferred our relationship under the already-established parameters. One of the things I missed the most were the comics especially the two regular features Dykes to Watch Out For and The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (TMUSLOEG-my fingers get tired even typing the acronym). The latter of these has been turned into a funny feature film as enjoyable as the comic in its rendering of the gay community.

Ethan Green (Daniel Letterle) should be happy. He is on mostly friendly terms with former lovers, has a host of supportive friends, and a very understanding mother (Meredith Baxter). And his current love, a former major league baseball player, has dedicated his memoir to him. So even though former lover, Leo, is selling his home turns out for the best as his athletic supporter invites him to movie in. So Ethan being Ethan has to subvert things and destroy the relationship.

Echoing the comic’s gay Doonesbury aspirations, there is a lot of politics leavened in with the comedy. The Hat Sisters (a middle-aged gay couple whom Ethan refers to as his aunties) are constantly involved with street theatre pranks that would warm the heart of Abbie Hoffman or Donald Segretti. In a solid cast Richard Riehle and Joel Brooks are the stand-outs (as well as the best cast of their comic strip doubles). Much good-natured humor is poked at the “Log Cabin” Republican Chester Baer (Scott Atkinson) who would change the name of the Gay Men’s Chorus to remove the word gay (”they sing that good, nobody cares who those boys are pokin’”). The bits range from the over-the-top to the positively subtle (when Ethan and Leo are having an argument in the bookstore, the empty shelf behind them is labeled “Lesbian Humor”). It is good that the humor works so well because the “Ethan has trouble with relationships” plot is leaden and obvious.

Appropriately, what works best in TMUSLOEG is the funnies from the gay ballplayer (where the jokes just write themselves) to a frenetic finale right out of the Marx Brothers school complete with slamming doors. In a summer where the big comedies were most noteworthy for the paucity of well-spaced jokes, TMUSLOEG is an Over the Hedge and Clerks II away from being the funniest movies of the season.