#Review : Me and Earl and The Dying Girl

Grab some tissues, prepare to cry, and laugh. Based on the best selling young-adult novel Me and Earl and The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews(who is also the screenplay writer), director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon perfectly captures the quirky humor and the notable characters in the renowned film.  Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival,  Me and Earl and The Dying Girl is the story of high school senior Greg (Thomas Mann) who avoids any human connection possible. He is a filmmaker and is good at telling stories in the way people want to hear. He even refers to his best friend Earl (RJ Cyler) as his ‘co-worker’ because since childhood, they have been making short film parodies of classic movies together. The story then takes a turn when Greg’s mom (Connie Britton) forces him to spend time with Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.

The film captures the harsh reality of high school in a humorous way without being insensitive but also delivers the sad and touching elements to each scene. As Greg spends more time with Rachel, he slowly discovers what it means to truly be selfless. With so much different emotions involved in the storyline, the parodies that Greg and Earl create, manage to keep the film’s humour run smoothly throughout the film and still capture the traumatic elements of it.

The most significant part of the movie is seeing how Greg’s story comes together in the end, and how he uses his skills to convey his confusion and fear of letting people in.

After the Toronto premiere on May 21, Alfonso, Thomas, Olivia, and RJ were all in attendance for a special Q & A session. When asked how the cast and crew felt about winning the audience award at Sundance, Alfonso tells us, “The week at Sundance played out exactly the way we dreamed of.” The cast tells the audience how they felt when they first read the screenplay. Olivia mentions, “When I saw Rachel and read the script, I would have done anything to be in it.” While RJ maintains his humorous personality just like his character Earl by telling us, “When I got the script, I was playing the game Call of Duty. It was like me on paper, it really creeped me out. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” With all the intense emotions each character faces throughout the film, Olivia says playing Rachel wasn’t easy. She had to go to a hospital and sit with a girl who actually had cancer. Thomas mentions his similarities with Greg are “Just kind of the way I saw high school as something to pass. I went to a big school in Texas as the same kids. The movie captures the chaos of high school. I saw it more of a way as Greg to capture the chaos.”

Fox Searchlight Pictures releases Me, Earl, and The Dying Girl in select theatres June 12