Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Cinema Screening)

(spoiler free)

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl fits into a lot of genres. It could be classed as a drama, a comedy, a high school movie, a movie about illness and a coming of age movie. Whilst it has a foot in each of these camps it always refuses to abide by the cliches and stereotypes of each.

This is one of my favourite things about the movie, it’s originality. Each character simply wouldn’t fit into the stereotypical role that they found themselves in. The lead girl isn’t a love interest, the best friend isn’t always supportive and the mentor figure takes much more of a backseat here. These writing decisions really allow all of the characters and the story to breathe slightly more and the film is much more unpredictable and interesting than a by the numbers movie of similar genres. I really liked the format of the movie too, Greg (Thomas Mann) narrates the story and divides it up into various sections, this kept the pace going and helped to consistently engage me. This is a film about cancer but this isn’t always the focus as I have already mentioned Me and Earl and the Dying girl fits into a lot of genres. I’d say that the film is actually more about Greg and his insecurities – nothing ever feels skimmed over though which is impressive as a lot of different aspects are touched upon during the film. Of course being a film fan I enjoyed the inclusion of films and parodies throughout, I enjoyed the creativity that was on offer through this. The creativity doesn’t stop there as it continues to reveal itself as the film proceeds ending up to be one of the films strongest elements.

All of the cast perform well, as I’ve said they aren’t playing cliched characters so they can’t rely on past performances. Each of the actors or actresses make their character their own and help the audience to get sucked into this world for the running time of the movie and as bizarre as some of the characters are you believe them and their situations. The music and the way the film is shot all contribute to this as well making it not only believable but really enjoyable to watch too. There are a few moments at the start of the film that made this end result questionable but clearly they quickly faded from my memory as I watched the film unfold and I’m sure this will only be a similar story upon re-watching the movie.

The originality, creativity and performances of the cast make Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a superb movie. Futhermore, the different type of chemistry between the characters is refreshing but equally as charming as the cliches we are used to. The result being that there is loads to be enjoyed here and plenty to discuss too so Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes highly recommended from me.

Rating – 9/10