Lots of Life in 'Me & Earl & the Dying Girl' (2015)

May 5, 2015
3 min read

When I first heard the plot summary of director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's latest film, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, my first thought was that the film was simply continuing on the "teen romance with cancer" narrative that became so wildly popular last year with The Fault in Our Stars. To be honest, I've never quite understood the romantic allure of John Green's novel in the same way that I will never view Romeo and Juliet as anything more than a cautionary tale. Although the film is sad, it gives very little to hold on to other than hokey flirtatious dialogue and Shailene Woodley crying for forty minutes.

Pictured: Real Men Saying Real Things #Realism

At a cursory glance, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl seems similar in scope: Young boy befriends girl with cancer. Changes his teenage-boy ways. Learns to appreciate those around him and begins to see life in a new light.

While all of this does in fact occur throughout the duration of Gomez-Rejon's film, it is done with a flippant irreverence, supported by Jesse Andrews's hilarious screenplay, adapated from Andrews's 2012 novel of the same name. Where many other films could fall into emotional excess, Dying Girl pulls back, refusing to let audiences become entirely absorbed by the narrative. The first time egoistic, antisocial Greg (Thomas Mann) visits newly-diagnosed cancer patient, Rachel (Olivia Cooke), he baldfacedly informs her that he's only there because his mother has forced him to spend time with Rachel. Rachel blinks at him, and flatly responds that he can hang out, anyways. From here, their relationship grows, but the filmmakers are careful never to let Greg and Rachel's emotions get the better than them except when it feels authentic.

Particularly memorable is Molly Shannon's performance as Denise Kushner, Rachel's "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" mother. She appears at her front door, greeting Greg and Earl with a glass of wine in her hand, slurring her words while calling them her little "mice" and asking them if they'd like some cheese. Moments like these, which occur pretty much constantly throughout the film, point to a refreshing take on serious subjects like the one explored through Dying Girl.

The film tells us that sometimes life is so painful that it becomes absurd, and this absurdity, in turn, allows us to laugh, even when confronted with pain.

Gomez-Rejon's take on absurdity extends to his visual style and his film in-jokes peppered throughout Dying Girl. He seems to have trouble keeping the camera still. The mechanism is constantly wizzing in 180 or even 360 degree motions, cutting from a high-angle long-shot to a low-angle extreme close-up in an instant, and even changing from a normal lens to a wide-angle within a single scene. Although I did love some of his visual ingenuity, it was dizzying to the point that I began wishing he would keep the camera still for a conversation or two. I had a similar reaction to his past film, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, which was saturated with visual experimentation to the point of excess. Gomez-Rejon's style is like a sweet dessert--tempting and delicious, but can be over-rich to the point of a stomach ache.

Wide-Angle Shots Make the Film Buffs Go Wiiiiiiild!

The one thing I did enjoy about the film's visual style was that it, once again, prevented viewers from being absorbed entirely into narrative. This is doubly ensured by Greg and his friend, Earl's, film projects. Obsessed with movies, Greg and Earl have created tons of re-enactments. Some are mainstream-popular, but some will only be appreciated by the cinephilic community, such as Nicholas Roeg's 1973 film, Don't Look Now, and Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film, Breathless. These in-jokes effectively add an off-the-cuff, goofball humour to an otherwise dark and dreary subject, reminding you that laughter and absurdity are the best tools to combat pain.

It's no wonder that Me & Earl & the Dying Girl garnered the U.S. Grand Jury Price: Dramatic and the Audience Award for U.S. Drama at Sundance.

Don't be surprised (or feel guilty!) if you laugh as much as you cry while watching this witty, charming, and irresistable film.

I give this film 4.5/5 Drunk Molly Shannons.

Me & Early & the Dying Girl hits theatres June 12th, 2015.