Although sometimes it is hard to fight your inner self which begs you to stay in bed and do nothing but squeeze your pillow, I have found myself surprisingly motivated to go to a movie in an actual theater, to taste the recent delights directors came up with to cure our sufferings. Here’s me trying to convince you to watch Me and Earl and the Dying girl.
Le synopsis
Meet Greg. High School senior, can be described as a not-particularly-handsome boy who used his subtle and sarcastic humor to befriend everybody, in order for him to stay out of trouble and inconvenient situations. He made his way through high school like that, until his mother forces him to become friends with Rachel, a girl recently diagnosed with cancer. Greg, Rachel and Greg’s movie-making partner, Earl, spend time together and lots of things happen, which are unnecessary for me to mention here.
Our precious opinion
Because I am no critic and I have no legitimacy to write why this movie is really good, I am just going to explain what I love about it and why I spent a pretty good hungover day (for once).
It is first about humor. You see, any movies making me laugh have won at least a quarter of my heart. Here, all of the characters are funny in a way. Their despair is funny, their weirdness is funny, their hobbies and behaviors towards each other are funny. And one cannot disagree with me when I say that humor is hard to convey when making a film about cancer.
Then – and it is somehow linked to my previous point – it is the whole unusual context of the movie that makes it so cool. I liked the fact that pretty much nothing was “cliched” in this movie, from the city where it is set (Pittsburgh), to human interactions and dialogues. I mean, how many times have we entered a story about high school, where the hero is either a loser, or a prom queen/king, or a hotty who does not know (s)he is one, or just someone who does not fit in any groups because, of course, people are divided into groups (cf. Mean Girls for more details). Here, the guy fits nowhere and everywhere. Oh and yeah, the History teacher is a hot-tattooed jock who happens to eat soup and be cool.
Finally, Me and Earl and the Dying girl is this little combination of American romcom that you watch to laugh and feel good about yourself, and sad movies about how rough and unfair life can be and how people learn to deal with it. It mixes every feelings that you may have while watching each of those, except that the mixture is way better because powerful. And it is odd now that I find myself choosing a movie in regards of the state of emotion that it would put me in, during and after I watched out.
I noticed that human behaviors, interactions and reactions towards diseases have become a pretty trending topic lately in films. Is it to sensitize people on what it is like to know someone who might die promptly? Or is it maybe to create a feeling that is stronger than just love, or pain or fear? Because that is the thing: throughout the film, you are constantly alternating feelings, you laugh, you cry, you admire, you laugh more and cry even more. That is the beauty of this film. Coupled with the incredible performance of the actors and the photography which made me slightly think sometimes of Wes Anderson‘s (without the obsession with colors).
I reckon that if you feel like watching a movie which does not require to completely switch your brain off, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will be a superb one. Especially given the rhyme in the title. Word.
A movie like…
I find resemblance with Juno, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and why not Easy A, but maybe just for the weird-parents part.
Thoughtful tip
Try not to read any (other) spoilers, because let me tell you that the finale feeling is probably the best if you are surprised by it.
“I sort of look like a pudding”
My Hangover Movies 