Movie Review: ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Fox Searchlight Pictures

4.0/5.0 Paws

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” pays tribute to the youth culture it portrays. Its trailer alone features an awkward panda suit, a steampunk classmate, movie references and ironic cancer sympathy cards.

While the young adult dramedy does not bring unexpected merit to its genre, it is worth watching for its visual and auditory personality.

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is the first major feature film by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Adapted from Jesse Andrews’ novel of the same name, the film won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

High school seniors Greg (Thomas Mann) and Earl (RJ Cyler) enjoy making semiserious film homages. Greg meets Rachel (Olivia Cooke), who has recently been diagnosed with leukemia, when his mother (Connie Britton) guilts him into getting to know her. While initially reluctant, he slowly begins to value her as a friend.

Rachel’s condition eventually worsens and she begins chemotherapy, inspiring Greg and Earl to create a film for her without her knowledge. However, making a fitting film for a person, let alone a dying person, proves difficult. They try different methods, including interviews with classmates, some of which lead to laughable results.

As is typical of the young adult genre, the film’s protagonist gains maturity through a series of challenges. It stands out, however, because of a combination of painstaking visual details and musical tone-setting.

The film’s main visual attractions include Greg and Earls’ stop-motion animations and goofy homages to classic films in which “A Clockwork Orange” becomes “A Sockwork Orange” with sock puppets. Though amateur, these short films are all either endearingly tongue-in-cheek or awe-inducing, putting “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” on a familiar yet memorable level.

The film’s detailed set decoration and prop collection also play an important role. For example, Rachel frequently jokes that Greg is romantically involved with her pillow collection. Greg’s room also brims with filmmaking paraphernalia. The art of the film becomes like a character in the story.

The film’s mostly ambient music, scored by English musician Brian Eno and American composer Nico Muhly, contributes to its emotional impact. Without distracting from the acting, the light instrumentals ebb and flow to represent the emotion in the film, including during the gripping buildup to its climax.

In terms of both tone and story, the film demands comparison to last year’s tearjerker “The Fault in Our Stars.” Mostly due to its relatable protagonist, however, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” outshines John Green’s story by far.

Greg, more so than Hazel from “The Fault in Our Stars,” experiences internal growth. He begins the film as a drifter between cliques, somehow unable to form deep friendships, even calling longtime companion Earl a co-worker. As his friendship with Rachel strengthens, he begins to make choices that are new to him. He gets into a heated argument with Earl when Earl tells Rachel about the movie they are making for her, ruining the surprise before it is done.

Rachel also tells Greg that he is disproportionately self-loathing and unconfident despite his talent. When she finds out that he has no goals for the future, she urges him to apply to college. He eventually stops maintaining his social persona and focuses on more purposeful pursuits, including filmmaking and forming close friendships.

The character, however, can come across as overly theatrical. The narrator of the film begins with several attention-grabbing hooks, including one that claims that he has created a film that literally killed someone, without staying who. These exaggerated lines keep the film from being relatable.

While all three young actors fit their roles without excess, newcomer RJ Cyler delivers the most unexpected performance as Earl. With plenty of humorous lines, he proves a natural talent for comedy. In the role of the character who often serves as the glue for the friendship trio, he also plays maturity and confidence well. His versatile performance emphasizes the importance of the “protagonist’s friend” role.

Rachel has the fewest lines among the three. Her personality is not fully fleshed out, though this does not detract from the film.

While Rachel’s fate is perhaps the main mystery of the film, Greg is its real focus. To both current and former young adults, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a reminder of both the difficulty and beauty that comes with growing up.

– Eileen Li