Review of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) by Sidd M — 26 Jul 2015

Me and Earl and the dying Girl is directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Jesse Andrews. It stars Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, and RJ Cyler along with Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, and Katherine C. Hughes.

This movie revolves around Greg(Thomas Mann), a high schooler whose quest is to stay as secluded as possible and amateur film director, as he befriends a cancer ridden girl, Rachel(Olivia Cooke). This leads him and his best friend Earl(RJ Cyler) to make a film for Rachel.

I love this movie. It was amazing! Those seven word usually don't get said when I talk about a Coming-of-age tale. Most are either too dramatic or too uninteresting. This movie found its footing from the first one minute with the opening gag. This is amazing considering how badly the setup could've gone if done poorly but instead it was short and sweet.

As the opening scene fades we are treated fine performances across the board. Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon and Katherine C. Hughes give great performances that add so much depth to the movie. Thomas Mann offers possibly the best performance of his career as he demonstrates all of Greg's vulnerabilities and strengths without making him too weak of a character or too strong of a character. Though Mann was excellent two people completely outshine him. RJ Cyler delivers an awe inspiring performance as Earl even though he barely speaks throughout the movie runtime. But the best performance by a long shot was Olivia Cooke. Cooke's portrayal as Rachel is beautiful, depressing, uplifting and overall masterful. She doesn't try to be a tearjerker but with that stated it hard not to tear up at her performance. Moving away from the performances lies the writing. The direction was fine but the writing had something to it. After I finished watching it I went home and checked who wrote it and to my surprise it was Jessie Andrews, writer of the book. One can really tell something is different about the movie from the start, a little more care is placed into it than other teen movies.

Overall this is in my top three best movie of the year and I'm not sure how many more movie I can say that about. I implore you go see this movie! Me and Earl and the Dying girl Gets an A+ or a 10/10.