Everybody who buys a ticket to a film titled with the words ‘Dying Girl’ expects to cry, but director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon works hard to earn those tears. The movie focuses on making its audience laugh with insightful, clever humour borne from tough emotional situations, and the crying is just a consequence of how much you empathise with the characters.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a little bit like Easy A or 10 Things I Hate About You, in that its a slightly off-kilter, alternative teen-comedy. The narration also shares Easy A’s level of self awareness, with the opening scene featuring the main character Greg’s frustration with how to best share this story. He chooses, as many teen movies do, to segment his high school into different groups, of which he is member to none. Greg (Thomas Mann) prefers to be on low-key good terms with everyone; observing high school rather than experiencing it. This philosophy is confronted when his mum forces him to hang out with one of his many acquaintances, Rachel (Olivia Cooke), when she is diagnosed with leukaemia. Rachel wants pity even less than Greg wants to give it, resulting in a friendship that is able to avoid the awkward and uncomfortable politeness that seems to be inherent in conversations with the terminally ill. Still, it takes Greg’s “co-worker” Earl (RJ Cyler) to nudge their conversations to more personal and insightful territory, like how Greg is terrified of the word friend and its possible rejection. Earl adopts the title co-worker as the two create horrible, punny spoofs of classic films, i.e Sockwork Orange, which Rachel takes pleasure from in the midst of her gruelling chemo treatment.
Casting the perfect Greg was intrinsic to the film’s success. With Mann resembling the shaggy teenager from Zits comics, he looks the part of an all-American, normal kid, but his comic timing and earnest voice is what makes the movie both relatable and enjoyable. His character balances having enough insight to accurately assess people in an instant with an inability to relate personally to said evaluations. He also blends a frustrating amount of self deprecation with witty humour. Cooke, who actually shaved her head for the role, approaches her role in a dignified fashion, maintaining the character’s strength and independence through a her ordeal. Cyler’s portrayal of laid-back but sensitive Earl so seamlessly unites the trio that you don’t realise how necessary he is to the film until you imagine it without him. The cast is studded with well-known, eccentric supporting actors (Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Jon Bernthal) that allow an awareness of the sufferings and joys experienced by the adults in their lives, somewhat of a rarity in teen films.
The endearing script and personable characters are made all the stronger by Gomez-Rejon’s interesting and almost interactive camera work that drags its audience into the film. In stark contrast to this energetic and powerful framing, the music and sentimentality are restrained. This highlights the platonic nature of the relationship between Rachel and Greg, a bond too often ignored in Hollywood in favour of romance and sex.
This film is well-deserving of its commendations and I encourage you to see it as soon as you can… with a box of tissues.
