Movie Review - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

This was a little movie I saw in June. Sorry for the late review -

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a small artsy film with a big heart. I really liked it, and yes I had to sniffle at the end. But it’s funny, clever, and endearing. The young actors – Thomas Mann, Ronald Cyler II, and Olivia Cooke are all excellent. The boys are nerdy high school kids. Mann skirts through the battlefield of high school as an acquaintance to all. He’s not in any groups, but he’s not a loner either. Cyler is Earl, the cool black kid who lives on the other side of town and befriended Mann back when they were seven or so. The two hang out at lunch in the history teacher’s office. And they share a love of movies – to the point where they’ve redone forty or so with weird titles and their own unique spin using hand created props, dolls, and cut and paste animation.  

Cooke, as Rachel, is a girl that Mann knows but doesn’t hang with. However the mothers are dear friends and now his mom is making him go hang with her because she has leukemia. He’s reluctant. She doesn’t want pity. They are at a standstill, but have to make the moms happy. Needless to say, their witty dialogue, sharper than average high schooler awareness leads them into friendship, even though he really doesn’t want to acknowledge it.  

That’s the movie in a nutshell – the growth of a young man as he learns to deal with the dying girl. Sounds deep. Sounds depressing. It’s not. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a unique exploration of the human heart. It’s short and sweet and you root for these kids as they grow up in a year.