Rating: 4/5
Based on the young adult novel of the same name, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl offers the audience a refreshing take on the on-screen adolescent journey — one that is amusing, self-aware and skillfully made.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is shown through the eyes of Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), a self-loathing senior at Schenley High School. Greg goes through life with a non-committal attitude, navigating his way through his school’s cliques by being a social butterfly, but one who does so in order to be overlooked. He even prefers to call Earl (Ronald Cyler II) — his only real friend — his “co-worker”. In their spare time, the pair produce amateur remakes of their favourite films together, replacing them with titles such as Sockwork Orange, The Rad Shoes and 2.48pm Cowboy.
Describing himself as “terminally awkward” and having “a face like a little groundhog”, the protagonist is, like the other characters, easy to like. The director’s peculiar approach in incorporating Earl and Greg’s own films gives Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a down-to-earth atmosphere — one that the characters also embody.
When Greg’s mother informs him that his old childhood friend Rachel Kushner (Olivia Cooke) has leukemia, she forces Greg to visit her, much to his dismay. What begins as a mother-arranged playdate becomes a genuine friendship as Greg and Rachel get to properly know each other. However, as Rachel goes through chemotherapy and eventually decides to stop treatment, the pair get into a fight, pushing Greg to acknowledge his lack of selflessness and to grow from this revelation.
However, there are times when Greg’s flaws and perspective are incredibly insular. With the storyline being told from Greg’s point of view — one where he has to go and spend time with Rachel — Me and Earl and the Dying Girl sometimes falls into trope territory. His parents, Earl and Rachel are all used to blatantly point out his lack of empathy, and thus they help Greg develop. But, interestingly enough, the audience isn’t entirely sure whether he does fully outgrow this flaw.
Whilst Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s film poses some critical thoughts on its narrator’s privileged perspective, the director boasts an inventive sense of style, and the film features a wonderfully apt cast that provides the audience with a film worthy of its 2015 Sundance Film Festival prizes.