Saturday, February 04, 2012
THE FUNNIES
Today's gay film is not on the favorites list.
The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2006)
I got it because I read the comic strip for years beginning with it's first appearance in Boston's gay newspaper Bay Windows.
The film is in the mode of a comic strip. Episodic and slightly (or more) over the top.
I enjoyed it. It got better as it went along.
Ethan is a loser, hard to identify with. But eventually we get and he gets that his problems are of his own making and that love is right in front of his eyes if he cares to look.
The other people in the film are also writ large. Some well played.
The resemblance between the film and the strip are minimal except for some continuing characters. The Hat Sisters make no sense in the film at all unless you already like them from the strip. They are sort of a Greek chorus but not. But if you have never, ever seen the strip, they are ludicrous. Well maybe they are ludicrous anyway. They are, indeed, real life characters from Boston's South End. A party act, often paid to make appearances.
I wouldn't see this again but I had a good time. A Netflix 3 out of 5.
