REVIEW: ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
Movies rarely hit as close to home as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl did for me. This summer alone I'll have written/directed/acted in a movie for the tiny "production company" my friends and I have been building and working on for years. Though we don't put in the almost Pixar-worthy effort characters Greg and Earl seem to, employing stop-motion animation and Star Wars-esque miniatures to get the job done, I certainly relate to the passion they put into their parodies, such as 2:48 Cowboy instead of Midnight Cowboy.
Book to film adaptations always get nerds nervous, unless you're Shrek, Lord of the Rings or To Kill a Mockingbird, but that's a short list. It's great when young adult authors can make the jump from page to silver screen themselves, as Stephen Chbosky did, directing/adapting his Perks of Being a Wallflower to huge success three years ago. Jesse Andrews was able to adapt his novel, and it's been reported he and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon were close. While that movie affected me because I was still in the midst of fighting my everyday high school tribulations, this film hits me even harder because of the character's struggle with getting into college, losing friends and navigating social circles. Post high school life is chock full of all three. I'll have to say, when 2055 rolls around and I'll be middle-aged, I'll watch movies like MEDG and laugh nostalgically, knowing a lot of that is behind me.
But I've never had it as hard as Greg. Instead of being the social outcast, in a very cleverly done voice over device (which one may resent later on in the film, but no spoilers!) the movie opens with Greg narrating his survival tactic of camouflaging himself into all cliques...unless you're a popular pretty girl. Then Greg's a modest mouse, waiting to get stomped on by a moose, which the movie visually demonstrates wonderfully. He doesn't even consider his closest friend a friend: Earl Jackson, who I wish the movie would've devoted more time to. Greg's turmoil and the chronicling of his new friend Rachel's cancer struggle is what the movie mostly consists of, but with a blunt, placid friend like Earl I'd love to see how he got to be like that and maybe his struggles.
That aside, along with the lovely Katherine C. Hughes as popular, pretty moose Madison, (who finally brings something new to the cute girl out of the nerdy guy's reach by the way), Greg begins to find out who he is, and what path he decides to take. I don't need to read the book to know Andrews didn't reinvent the wheel with MEDG. You don't have to in a genre picture. Just bring something fresh. And freshness is brought. Along with some great camerawork from Chung-hoon Chung that gives the high school scenes an alive, visceral feel, the three leads and most of the supporting cast come ready to deliver. Thomas Mann is a refreshing addition to the aforementioned nerdy guy archetype, R.J. Cyler debuts strongly as Greg's compatriot Earl, and Olivia Cooke perhaps brings the most nuanced performance of the film as titular Dying Girl Rachel.
Cancer "sucks," as Greg says when his mother (Connie Britton) delivers the news. That statement is the approach of the movie, never letting things dip into sentimentality; it's too self-aware. Let's all be honest: this movie likely was green-lit after The Fault in Our Stars proved a hit, but in a way MEDG is the anti-TFIOS. Not that's horrible, but in the sense that it refuses to let the subject matter overwhelm the story at hand of two teenagers coming of age in vastly different circumstances. And I have to say it even tops the John Green-inspired script of TFIOS in terms of comedy: this movie is hilarious, and I don't bring out the H-word for just any comedy. The post-history teacher-soup scene with Greg and Earl rivals the acid trip Schmidt and Jenko take in 21 Jump Street. Come to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to laugh, to cry, and maybe be a little frustrated at times. But if any f-word summed up high school and the journeys we all have to take to become ourselves, it's frustrating.
Rating: 3/4 stars
Book to film adaptations always get nerds nervous, unless you're Shrek, Lord of the Rings or To Kill a Mockingbird, but that's a short list. It's great when young adult authors can make the jump from page to silver screen themselves, as Stephen Chbosky did, directing/adapting his Perks of Being a Wallflower to huge success three years ago. Jesse Andrews was able to adapt his novel, and it's been reported he and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon were close. While that movie affected me because I was still in the midst of fighting my everyday high school tribulations, this film hits me even harder because of the character's struggle with getting into college, losing friends and navigating social circles. Post high school life is chock full of all three. I'll have to say, when 2055 rolls around and I'll be middle-aged, I'll watch movies like MEDG and laugh nostalgically, knowing a lot of that is behind me.
That aside, along with the lovely Katherine C. Hughes as popular, pretty moose Madison, (who finally brings something new to the cute girl out of the nerdy guy's reach by the way), Greg begins to find out who he is, and what path he decides to take. I don't need to read the book to know Andrews didn't reinvent the wheel with MEDG. You don't have to in a genre picture. Just bring something fresh. And freshness is brought. Along with some great camerawork from Chung-hoon Chung that gives the high school scenes an alive, visceral feel, the three leads and most of the supporting cast come ready to deliver. Thomas Mann is a refreshing addition to the aforementioned nerdy guy archetype, R.J. Cyler debuts strongly as Greg's compatriot Earl, and Olivia Cooke perhaps brings the most nuanced performance of the film as titular Dying Girl Rachel.
Cancer "sucks," as Greg says when his mother (Connie Britton) delivers the news. That statement is the approach of the movie, never letting things dip into sentimentality; it's too self-aware. Let's all be honest: this movie likely was green-lit after The Fault in Our Stars proved a hit, but in a way MEDG is the anti-TFIOS. Not that's horrible, but in the sense that it refuses to let the subject matter overwhelm the story at hand of two teenagers coming of age in vastly different circumstances. And I have to say it even tops the John Green-inspired script of TFIOS in terms of comedy: this movie is hilarious, and I don't bring out the H-word for just any comedy. The post-history teacher-soup scene with Greg and Earl rivals the acid trip Schmidt and Jenko take in 21 Jump Street. Come to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to laugh, to cry, and maybe be a little frustrated at times. But if any f-word summed up high school and the journeys we all have to take to become ourselves, it's frustrating.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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