Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)

[Henry Gale]

http://veryaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ME-AND-EARL-AND-THE-DYING-GIRL-a.jpg

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582496/) / Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_%26_Earl_%26_the_Dying_Girl _%28film%29)

[Henry Gale]

No thank you.

I could go scene for scene with this about my annoyance with how the movie conducts itself and cloyingly pleads to win the audience over. Its biggest hindrance is that it suffers from what I can only really refer to as Juno-syndrome. And I mean that in more ways than one. Firstly, it's a movie that seems to have been concocted in a lab to make the most Sundance-bait movie imaginable. It basically plays up every trope and stylistic flourish we now completely expect from a certain sort of affected, ironic, and twee melancholy comedy that so often comes out of this festival-fueled facet of the independent world, where things are low budget enough to feel like a scrappy underdog production, but also boasting enough supporting star power and industry-connected production assets -- One brief, voice-only cameo from a major star comes to mind -- to keep it from feeling like its otherwise amateurish nature should really exist at all. Also, this movie spends way too much time keeping its camera pointed at Criterion DVD's, posters and even stores filled with nothing but sections pointing out names and covers of things the director would really like you to know he's well aware of (to subconsciously boost your perception of the film to be more knowledgeable about filmmaking and storytelling than anything else being perpetuated on screen), but sure, the main character likes them all too, so we'll keep doing it! It just feels like it's just scraping together so much stuff in its script we've seen before, and way too many years after I thought they'd still be considered fresh and exciting.

Also, like Juno, the lead is easily the most insufferable and emotionally impenetrable entity in the story. And not even in the way of something like Richard Ayoade's Submarine where it actually informs the narrative. All of the other characters in it (and especially the performances behind them) manage to exude charm, heart, emotional weight and personality beyond Greg (the "Me" of the title) that I really hated having to see the story filtered through his perspective and narration because not only did it make me question how they could interact with him half as pleasantly with them as they do, but it also robbed them of screentime, especially when they could've all been fleshed out so much more. If the story was "Earl and The Dying Girl and This Guy Greg's Mom and Dad (Played By Connie Britton and Nick Offerman)" then we could've had something worthwhile and unique here. He's basically a calculating, self-centered social butterfly who sees himself as an outcast for no reason other than to feel sorry for himself who would rather have nothing to do with the people who care about him, but even after he shuts them out, Spoiler(!), they still have his back to give him what he needs (with little understandable motivation on their parts).

Not to mention the completely stupid misdirect the movie pulls throughout just to allow its third act to play out as emotionally manipulatively as possible, without it even having the decency to make the audience betrayal particularly sensical or justified.

I could go on and on in more and more detail, but considering it doesn't come out for a few months, there's really no point to doing that without anyone else who's seen it to really understand or rebut my thoughts. It looks fine, it's edited nicely, and the supporting cast is in fine form throughout, and there are inspired moments in it (often negated by far more self-congratulatory bits that later stem from them), and there are times I wondered if it could completely turn things around. It's just a shame about the protagonist, its incessantly affected style and precious view of its rote self.

** / 4.6

[Pop Trash]

I haven't seen MAEATDG (how's that for an acronym?), but this is a nice review from Film Comment's Jonathan Romney. He seems completely aware that this is a film many people will loathe, but enjoys it anyway as he should.


http://filmcomment.com/entry/me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-review

[Ivan Drago]

I hated literally everything about this movie, starting with its desperate attempts to get laughs out of its audience with expository voiceover, annoying graphics and forced movie references. The particular one that Henry hinted toward is probably the most cringe-worthy, as it just fucking SCREAMS "Hey! Look at this! It's clever! I'm a clever filmmaker, guys!" Not only that, but this movie also thinks it's incredibly creative and artsy with off-center close ups, nauseating first-person POV, and whip pans that would make Wes Anderson hurl. After the first half-hour, save Rachel, I wanted to punch every single character, especially the main one, in the face. For a filmmaker who seemingly has a vast knowledge of cinema and shoves it into the audience's face as forcefully as Nick Offerman does the family cat, this film's director doesn't know how to make a film that's tolerable. This was hailed at Sundance how?

[Watashi]

This makes Juno look like Before Midnight.

One of the worst films I've ever seen. I get that everything is supposed to be filtered through the perspective of how a self-loathing teen perceives high school, but this is parody. Not even Louis Sachar makes school look this sideways. Nothing is real in this movie. It's a Sundance Honest Trailer stretched out to two hours. How dare they abuse Brian Eno in this way.

[Henry Gale]

As relived as I am to not be alone on this, and the more I read about it the more I'm reminded of the little and larger details I disliked about it, as many TV spots and other images flashed by various fields of vision during its promotion, I DID realize the movie has exactly one sequence in the middle of it that really did resonate in the moment and stay with me. It's the montage where we see Greg visiting Rachel over the course of the summer from his first-person perspective, watching her get progressively happier to see him, before clearly becoming emotionally drained and totally disillusioned with her situation.

It might've been the strong editing, the Eno / Nico Muhly score, or that its change of pace within the body of the film and self-containment outside of it let it function like a gorgeous Chung-hoon Chung-shot music video of sorts; but whatever the key ingredient, it is fairly beautiful, and easily the most compelling thing in it for me.

Shame about the rest.

[Ezee E]

Cancer Comedy needs its own genre.

And you guys already nailed it all, but jees...

[dreamdead]

the movie has exactly one sequence in the middle of it that really did resonate in the moment and stay with me. It's the montage where we see Greg visiting Rachel over the course of the summer from his first-person perspective, watching her get progressively happier to see him, before clearly becoming emotionally drained and totally disillusioned with her situation.

It might've been the strong editing, the Eno / Nico Muhly score, or that its change of pace within the body of the film and self-containment outside of it let it function like a gorgeous Chung-hoon Chung-shot music video of sorts; but whatever the key ingredient, it is fairly beautiful, and easily the most compelling thing in it for me.


Good point on this sequence. It's the redeemer on a narrative that is so insular that it's difficult to perceive when it's undercutting that insularity and when it's whole-heartedly embracing it. Almost everything in the third act is overbearing, and the film suffers most when it relies on Rejon's framing, which is often too overt by half. Almost everything in the film is framed through expressive shots that over-announce the alienation and distance between characters. It's too much and goes against the better impulses of a film that could be interesting if it knew when to reign in its thoughts. Icky throughout.