Movie Review: 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- "I have no idea how to tell this story," says the narrating protagonist at the beginning of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. And, given the unusual title, we can understand why he might feel that way.
But the film itself overcomes any artistic indecision and delivers a rewarding comedy-drama that impresses with its wit even as it merits our tears.
As recent films such as The Fault in Our Stars and 50/50 have demonstrated, the issue of coping with cancer can be addressed in an entertaining, palatable movie.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, winner of multiple awards on the festival circuit, does the same.
It's a coming-of-age comedy-drama about the relationship between an awkward teenage boy and a girl dying of cancer.
Thomas Mann plays Greg Gaines, a quirky, nerdy, whimsically self-loathing Pittsburgh high school senior skating through life generally disengaged. His modus operandi is to avoid dreaded rejection by remaining more or less invisible and emotionally closed off within his own subculture.
His mother, played by Connie Britton, urges him to befriend a girl down the street, Rachel, played by Olivia Cooke, who has been diagnosed with leukemia.
With Earl, played by RJ Cyler, Greg's best and perhaps only friend since early childhood –- whom he actually describes as a "co-worker" -- he makes parodies of both well-known and esoteric movies.
This subplot might seem out of place on the surface, but somehow these clever takeoffs –- with hilarious, pun-tastic titles that will not be spoiled here -- turn the film into a strangely effective blend of life-affirming humor and death-confirming sadness.
And these aspiring filmmakers have now found a truly worthy audience of one to complete a feature for.
Jesse Andrews, adapting his own Young Adult novel, addresses teen angst in a way that seems familiar and fresh at the same time.
Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (The Town That Dreaded Sundown), with a background mostly in television, dedicates the film to his late father, offering a movie about death that, of course, turns out to be about life. And he gives it just enough of an edge to tug at your heartstrings without seeming to.
And he gets natural, fine performances from his three young principals, especially Mann, who as the film's anchor is both authentic and endearing.
So we'll befriend 3 stars out of 4 for a poignant portrait of adolescence, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Give this pearl a whirl.
