Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2006)

26 year-old Ethan Green (Daniel Letterle) lives with roommate Charlotte (Shanola Hampton) in a house owned by his ex-boyfriend Leo Worth (David Monahan) in West Hollywood. Ethan has been dating former pro baseball player Kyle Underhill (Diego Serrano), so when Leo says he plans to sell the house, Ethan starts dropping hints to Kyle that they should live together. But when Kyle actually asks him to move in, Ethan breaks up with him. Ethan hooks up with a younger man, Punch Epstein (Dean Shelton), who works in a real estate office. Together they delay the sale of Leo's house by convincing him to sign with the LA's worst realtor, the chronically depressed Sunny Deal (Rebecca Lowman). After a one-night stand, Ethan has decided he wants to get back together with Leo. Unfortunately, Leo has become engaged to an abusive control freak, Republican Chester Baer (Scott Atkinson). Ethan's event planner mother has agreed to plan their commitment ceremony. Leo, Punch and Kyle end up in a threesome in Ethan's bedroom. Punch decides that Ethan isn't mature enough and dumps him. Kyle, who was considering taking Ethan back, abruptly changes his mind. Chester forgives Leo and they go ahead with their plans. The house sells, Charlotte and Sunny move in together and Ethan signs a lease at a local retirement community. Ethan crashes the ceremony but only to give Leo his blessing. At the altar, Leo has an anxiety attack and has to be taken away in an ambulance. A few days later Ethan settles in at the retirement community and the screen fades to black with the words "The End". The screen fades back up on Leo talking with a lady retiree. As Ethan stands nearby, Leo tells her that he gave Chester his ring back and broke up with him. Leo has realized that he still loves Ethan. He and Ethan reconcile and the film ends as they kiss.

This movie is a romantic comedy about a gay man with difficulties in dating and finding a rented apartment. It's based on Eric Ormer's syndicated comic strip that appears in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publications. The strip's title character is Ethan Green and it was started in 1989. Director George Bamber's adaptation is entertaining, some characters are gay stereotypes, and it's difficult to sympathize with Ethan's problems. The film does not challenge intellectually, but it does contain some scenes that make it fun to watch. Since this is a low budget production, there was little opportunity to illustrate the sci-fi themes that are in the strip. Viewers not familiar with the strip will still understand it. Roy Firestone composed the original music, David Vernon wrote the screenplay, and George Bamber directed.

Urbania (2000)

Charlie (Dan Futterman) is an ordinary man haunted by the absence of his boyfriend, Chris (Matt Keeslar). Unable to sleep, he roams the streets of NYC looking in various bars for him. During the course of his journeys, Charlie keeps running into a number of different urban legends: the woman who cooks her dog in the microwave, the man who wakes up to find he is missing a kidney, a rat in a hot dog bun, a baby left on a car top, a tourist's toothbrush, needles in public-phone change slots--all of which makes NYC look surreal and scary. There are many dream-like hallucinatory flashbacks. He encounters Dean (Samuel Ball), a tough young man Charlie has met somewhere before, and who may hold the answers to Charlie's questions. Dean is racist, sexist and homophobic. Charlie pretends to be straight, buys Dean drinks and smokes a joint with him. Then Dean takes Charlie to a gay cruising area looking for victims, but Charlie is able to warn away the intended target. Dean is now almost incapacitated by alcohol and drugs and Charlie gets him into Dean's car and drives him to a secluded marshy area. With flashbacks we learn that several months earlier Dean and two of his buddies had attacked Charlie and raped and murdered Chris. Charlie's purpose is finally revealed: he wants revenge. He had pulled a knife on Dean and forced him to kneel and fellate the knife blade. Suddenly, Dean collapsed with an epileptic seizure. Charlie slit his throat. Chris challenges Charlie, not believing that he killed Dean. Charlie admits that he wanted to but couldn't. Instead, he drove off in Dean's car, abandoning him in the marsh. Charlie stands up from where he's been kneeling, at a makeshift memorial near where Chris was killed. He walks home and has one more flashback. He sees himself on the street, cradling a dying Chris. He kisses him goodbye and passes by him. When he turns back, he is gone. Charlie makes it home and finally is able to sleep.

This film mixes comedy, drama, film noir, and gay cinema in new and interesting ways. A directorial debut from Jon Shear (Jon Matthews), "Urbania" moves from the present time to flashbacks and flashforwards, never losing its viewers for a second. It's based on the stage play "Urban Folk Tales" by Daniel Reitz, who wrote the screenplay with John Mathews. Marc Anthony Thompson composed the original music, and Jon Matthews directed.