I don’t blame you. You want to say, “Geez. Who is dying this week?” I don’t blame you at all. The life span of your average screen teen seems to be about 2.5 Acts these days. Less if you’re in a dystopia.
Greg (Thomas Mann) is all kinds of screwed up. Is it his weird new age parents (Connie Britton & Nick Offerman)? Is it that feeling of being lied to when your mom says you’re handsome? Is it a new form of introversion? Or does it stem from Project X? Doesn’t matter, I suppose. He’s figured out high school; the plan is to create the most superficial of relationships with every.single.group on campus and thus skate just below the limbo pole of conflict at all times. The execution of this plan is hilarious – he avoids mass congregations(including the cafeteria), “makes the rounds” adding empty mildly-supportive commentary to any discussion and then watches Werner Herzog films with his friend Earl (RJ Cyler) in his history teacher’s office. Can I admit I was a little jealous? He’s figured it out; he’s figured out how to beat high school.
Of course, “friend” is a term Greg avoids. Earl explains that in Greg’s world, the term “friend” involves such a commitment that Greg himself only refers to Earl as his co-worker. Yes, this is the guy that’s going to ease the pain of the girl dying from leukemia.
Rachel (Olivia Cooke) doesn’t want the reluctant boy down the block humoring her last months of life any more than he does. Greg admits he’s not there because he feels sorry for Rachel; his mother made him. “That’s even worse,” Rachel plays The Truth Game, too. In her room, Greg attaches himself to an extra fluffy pillow and makes a tremendously inappropriate masturbation joke. My jaw dropped. But this is actually what Rachel needs – somebody inappropriate but honest, somebody who will act on teen awkward rather than somebody who will preface every moment of company with teary-eyed hesitation as if each syllable uttered has the power by itself to shatter. The two become fast friends.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl isn’t a romance. Greg isn’t ready and Rachel isn’t capable in her current state. The film makes no bones about that. Greg and his
flawed personality and homemade films (not unlike the ones in Be Kind Rewind) are going to see Rachel to the finish line sans kissing.
Here’s the thing – M&E&DG has some well-placed levity – Greg’s dad constantly offering the boys snack items not fit for human consumption, for instance … or Greg’s inner Claymation describing summits with the opposite sex as a moose stomping a chipmunk. “Why are you touching me? What’s that about?” But the best that this Three-Going-on-Two film has to offer is a failure to cheat. Greg doesn’t become magically smooth or popular or romantic; he constantly makes questionable moves – the same you might make if you were an awkward teen. Earl behaves as a black kid, not a white kid with a black face. And Rachel is dying, and most of that sucks. There’s no cheat here; it is what it is.
This film is on a very short list of 2015 films I want to see again. I’m sure I shall.
♪I remember to this day
That dorkiness of my way
And how I wouldn’t leave though I wanted to go
Will power made our friendship bloom
While I was stuck up in her room
Oh how I wish
I could start all this anew
Me and Earl and the dying girl
Watchin’ films we made by hand
Me and Earl and the dying girl
None of this is what we planned♫
Rated PG-13, 105 Minutes
D: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
W: Jesse Andrews
Genre: Not Another Dead Teen Movie
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Me
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People who hate it when movies make you cry
♪ Parody inspired by “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”
