Review of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) by Alessandra N — 21 May 2015

This film is a humble little gem that packs a powerful punch by it's end. I screened it 3 days ago and am still bowled over. It's a must for any cinephile! Filled with self deprecation and honesty, teenage awkwardness and humility, sarcasm, biting wit, and best of all: intelligence.

Jesse Andrews has woven his serious tale with a lot of levity into a well-crafted screenplay, director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon knocks it out of the ballpark with his sensitivity and humor, and a wonderful cast brings this film home to a place that will land deeply and plant firmly inside of your heart.

This is a tender tale of three friends, two of which whose secret hobby is creating remakes of classic and foreign cinema in their back yard. Any film buff will appreciate the tremendous and terrible puns in the titles and you will be tickled by the cut-aways and vignettes of them! Greg is a tall, lanky, awkward teenager who spends a lot of time in his head and tends to draw his only friend inward along with him. He is in his senior year of high school and his mother imposes upon him the task of spending time with Rachel, a girl who has been diagnosed with Leukemia and whom he really hasn't talked to since they were in kindergarten.

Their "doomed friendship" unfolds in quirky and poignant chapters, employing stop animation, heartfelt and charming dialogue, and the rawness that is being sensitive in an insensitive world during a harsh right of passage many of us encounter as we stumble through high school and contemplate the unknown that is College. The best of us navigate it all clumsily. It's a realistic slice of life about idealistic young minds who are faced with heavy adult-sized events and the evolution from teenage angsty cynicism to ...something even more heartbreakingly true, something that unfolds and will keep unfolding for a lifetime.