The Hottest State (2007)

Image credit: Macall B. Polay

'STATE' OF DISARRAY Mark Webber and Catalina Sandino Moreno star in Ethan Hawke's misguided mopefest

If the words ''based on a semiautobiographical first novel'' don't send chills up your spine, how about ''adapted for the screen and directed by the author''? Whatever you're imagining — self-serving self-awareness; unedited hipster mopes; yammering dear-diary script — The Hottest State, Ethan Hawke's bathetic tale of a good-looking young actor's first heartbreak, is far worse. Everything about the Hawke avatar William (Mark Webber) is utterly jejune and generic, including his issues with Daddy (Hawke himself, completing the film's journey up its own keister).