Risky 'Dying Girl' defies conventions ... and wins
<b>Mini-review: 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'<.b>
Just from the title, you can tell that "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is going to be risky, something different that defies convention and our expectations.
"Me and Earl," directed with visionary confidence by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon from Jesse Andrews' screenplay (based on his book), tells the story of Greg, an awkward, socially inept high school student whose mom pressures him to hang out with Rachel, a classmate diagnosed with leukemia.
No cancer movie clichés here. No tear-jerker with a pair of pliers.
"Me and Earl" is a smart, sharply observed comedy dripping with honesty from characters so vividly real and individually drawn that it redefines the teenage movie genre.
The story relies heavily on first-person voice-over narration, which very few movies can do well. Greg, played by a perfectly cast Thomas Mann, begins with, "I don't know how to tell this story," then fumbles through his daily life, divided into chapters such as "The Part Where I Meet a Dying Girl."
She's Rachel, played by Olivia Cooke, an adorable actress with deep, wide eyes that take up the communication slack when her words become exhausted.
Her frazzled, single mom is played by "SNL" alum Molly Shannon, who brings a boozy floozy quality to the character, clearly modeled after Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson from that earlier generational touchstone, "The Graduate."
"Me and Earl" is a movie put together by people who love and celebrate movies, as evidenced by T-shirts, film clips and the awful home movies created by Greg and his pal Earl (R.J. Cyler), a tough street kid with an old soul emanating spunk and wisdom. Think of Earl as a teenage Morgan Freeman.
Together, they've made 42 cheapie productions, among them "A Sockwork Orange," "The 400 Bros," "Pooping Tom" and "Death in Tennis." One of Greg's classmates, the alluring Madison (Katherine Hughes), decides they should make a movie for the ailing Rachel.
As you might guess, "Me and Earl" is not a plot-driven story, but an incisive glimpse at relationships between students and teachers (Jon Bernthal's tattooed history instructor is the coolest), kids and parents (Nick Offerman's dad is the strangest), boys and girls, and especially teens and their peers.
"Me and Earl" works or fails on its lead actor. Here, Mann transparently morphs into an archetypal confused teen, a 21st century reincarnation of Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock.
His endearing, low self-esteemed Greg becomes the hub for a cinematically daring story with some of the splashier visuals recalling early works of the Coen brothers.
Look closely at how camera man Chung-Hoon Chung first frames Greg and Rachel - alone, surrounded by voids of lonely, empty space. Later, when they begin to bond, Greg and Rachel come together in the same frame.
It's another nice "Graduate" touch in a movie blessed with a million more that offer fresh takes on death, memory and love. And making really bad home movies.
"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" opens at the Century Centre and the River East 21 in Chicago, plus the Evanston Century 18. It opens wider on June 19. Rated PG-13 for drug use, language, sexual situations. 104 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ★