Film No. 60 (2015) August 22nd. 10.45 AM LUNA Leederville.
"No, hey, I'm not here because I pity you, no I'm actually here because my mum made me". (Greg justifies his visit to Rachel).
This film will be forgotten more easily than Juno, the film it is being most compared with, but I think it is cleverer; maybe it's just a little too unique for its own good but who cares. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has deserved all the accolades and awards it has received in recent months.
Meet Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) a scrawny high school student who spends most of his time with Earl (RJ Cyler), his co-worker, making elaborate home made films based on higher profile blockbusters from the past. Grumpy Cul-De-Sacs (Mean Streets)and Senior Citizen Cane are just a few of the titles produced by Greg and Earl. Greg's meandering life takes a turn when his mum (Connie Britton) insists he visit Rachel (Olivier Cooke) who has cancer. From here it is the clumsiness of the meeting then the graduation of the raw honesty they share that separates Me and Earl from other teenage weepies.
Perhaps director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has tried a little too hard to crearte a quirkiness about every character but as none of them over act he gets away with it. Earl is wonderfully likeable from the get go and I for one would love to have seen his all knowing relationship with Rachel captured in more scenes. But when a film as rich as this is served up there can often be a taste for more.
And then there is the ending. We know that we are being lead inevitably towards sadness prior to the rolling of the credits. The real sadness, with a touch of the uplifting, does come quite brilliantly in the last 7 minutes but not quite as you might expect. In those seven minutes we travel back through the key days of Greg and Earl and Rachel's relationships so brilliantly you'll be left touched. To be left uniquely and truly touched by a film takes great skill. I have fallen more in love with this film in the days since. 10GUMS
Perhaps director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has tried a little too hard to crearte a quirkiness about every character but as none of them over act he gets away with it. Earl is wonderfully likeable from the get go and I for one would love to have seen his all knowing relationship with Rachel captured in more scenes. But when a film as rich as this is served up there can often be a taste for more.
And then there is the ending. We know that we are being lead inevitably towards sadness prior to the rolling of the credits. The real sadness, with a touch of the uplifting, does come quite brilliantly in the last 7 minutes but not quite as you might expect. In those seven minutes we travel back through the key days of Greg and Earl and Rachel's relationships so brilliantly you'll be left touched. To be left uniquely and truly touched by a film takes great skill. I have fallen more in love with this film in the days since. 10GUMS
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