Olivia Cooke as Rachel, Thomas Mann as Greg and RJ Cyler as Earl in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
The very best and worst of times are played out in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, the 105 minute comedy fable directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. This is not your typical love story or your ordinary coming-of-age get a date before the big dance teen caper. It recounts the friendship of three high school students, Me, (Greg played by Thomas Mann), Earl, (RJ Cyler) and the Dying Girl (Rachel, played by Olivia Cooke) who find common ground through, simply enough, film.
Navigating the fragmented ecosystem that is high school with its various groups and tribes, Greg has learned to be friendly with everyone, yet attached to no-one (save for Earl) in order to diplomatically doggy-paddle through school life. His ‘co-worker’, Earl, whom he refers to in order to prevent ascribing the label of ‘friend’ is his closest mate since kindergarten, living nearby but on the run-down side of town. The two bonded over a passion for classic cinema, re-creating two-man versions of said films and curiosity for the far flung cuisine that Greg’s hippy cat-loving dad, (Nick Offerman) regularly prepares at home. Forced by his Greg’s Mom (Connie Britton), the ‘Kobe Bryant of nagging’, Greg reluctantly goes to visit the reclusive Rachel, the daughter of his mom’s wine-swilling friend, who is suffering from Leukemia.
The forced encounter between Earl and the dying girl gently blooms into a platonic friendship where the two talk about nothing in particular and Greg, a master of smalltalk learns to wholeheartedly give himself to another person, skipping school for months, sharing his sacred oeuvre of films, and filling Rachel’s time with humour, babbling and friendship through her illness. The narrated asides by Greg throughout the film guide us of what will be and should be from the viewpoint of typical romance films. Stop motion animated sequences punctuate the film and act as a reflection of Greg’s innermost thoughts, and the element of hand craft, the DIY infilm shorts made by Greg and Earl with phones and mini projectors, props cut, painted and sewn add a personal layer that pull you into caring for these characters much deeper than you realise.
The brilliantly written screenplay debut of Jesse Andrews who adapted the film from his book of the same title, affords decent screen time for all the characters including the supporting cast, to allow the audience to actually get to know them. The believable awkwardness, warmth and frustration played out between Greg and Rachel elevated my opinion of the actor I remember from Project X, and a girl from Oldham who more than carried herself on screen. Jon Bernthal, Greg’s teacher is much more than the 2-D pill popping scumbag salesman Wolf of Wall Street allowed. Here he is a rough around the edges teacher, heavily tattooed with a passion for learning, and a mantra to ‘respect the research’. Connie Britton (who will always be Tami Taylor) could well be candidate for the ultimate onscreen mom and was a believable fit as Earl’s doting Mom alongside Nick Offerman who nailed a deadpan bleary eyed yet flamboyant hippy cat loving dad. Even Earl, who’s character could easily have fallen short of being just an African American hard-knock high school stereotype was allowed to breathe on screen. Seeing him recreate classic films such as Vertigo, The Seventh Seal and Z was a depiction of young black males from the inner city rarely seen on screen.
The beauty of the film’s storytelling was in part that it didn’t wrap up all the ends neatly, so often a film will give you exactly what you expect, which is both the reason they’re made and also fail at the box office. Fans of similarly offbeat stories such as 500 days of Summer and Be Kind Rewind would definitely go for this film, but this feels decidedly more local and grounded. Me, Earl and the dying girl is unexpectedly funny, quirky but with substance, and could be grouped with other original indie films high school films such as Brick, and it also teaches us that to forge relationships, spend time talking and pour yourself into something you care about will ensure you live on long after you are gone.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Bare Reviews Innit. Wot. 