Me and Earl and the Dying Girl review: One of the best of the year. A truly brilliant movie.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl review
A firm favourite on the festival circuit earlier on in the year, and picked up at Sundance by Fox for a record $12 million, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s indie movie Me and Earl and the Dying Girl finally makes it to UK shores as summer slowly fades away.
The film revolves around high-school senior, and part-time parody filmmaker Greg (Thomas Mann), who is directed by his mother to befriend Rachel (Olivia Cooke), his classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl review
Written by Jesse Andrews, based on his novel of the same name, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a beautiful, very quirky movie that enchants from the beginning. The cast and characters are hugely likable, and the cinematography from Chung-hoon Chung (Stoker, Thirst) and direction from Gomez-Rejon (who cut his teeth on American Horror Story and Glee), very inventive. While slightly off-beat, the Andrews’ screenplay is engaging, hugely witty throughout, and utterly heart-breaking. There’s a true sense of reality running through the film with some of the scenes shot in the author’s actual childhood home. The performances are also excellent, particularly from the two you leads, Mann and Cooke, in two break-out roles. There’s also some great support from a ‘totally out-there’ Nick Offerman as Greg’s Dad (a stand-out), as well as Jon Bernthal in a truly off-kilter role as cool history teacher Mr. McCarthy; his second delightful turn in as many weeks following the sleazy appearance of Paige in last week’s We Are Your Friends. Also worthy of mention is RJ Cyler who makes an excellent feature debut as the character also referred to in the title, Earl.
It’s hard not to fall in love with the charm of this little movie from a gifted team who have delivered one of the delights of the year so far. Sure to be present on many ‘best-of’ lists in the coming months, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl manages to do that difficult thing of making you laugh, cry and warm your heart all at the same time.
A truly brilliant movie.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl review by Paul Heath, September, 2015.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl opens in UK cinemas from Friday 4th September 2015.
