dir. by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
BEST NEW FEATUREThe Sundance-acclaimed adaptation of Jesse Andrews' novel of the same name has finally reached indie cinemas, and while it's not the best film to win Sundance's Grand Jury Prize, it's a touching, funny, and smart teen film.
Greg (Thomas Mann) lives a carefully balanced life at school, having just close enough relations with each clique without properly belonging to them. This is all disrupted when his mother makes him visit an old classmate, Rachel (Olivia Cooke), who is dying of cancer.. Also, he makes films with his friend Earl (RJ Cyler). This is the premise of the original novel, but even though Andrews writes the script of the film, this version of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl differs in numerous ways from its source material. Though some funny moments are lost, some of the film's funniest scenes are actually additions, and the result is a much more compact and to-the-point story. As with many other young adult novel adaptations, the film benefits from removing a lot of the internal monologue, though unlike, say, the Hunger Games films, it's not done away with entirely. Instead, it only comes in at key moments, and is much more effective as a result.
In the original novel, Greg was the narrator, and in the narration we saw his awkwardness and confusion. While that is largely removed, the void is filled with Mann's fantastic performance, where he takes Greg's awkwardness and wears it like a well-fitting coat. While Greg is a bit of a jerk, a lot of this comes from him facing a certain level of adversity that he's never had to deal with before, and that's something which Mann captures perfectly. He captures these confused emotions that Greg is dealing with without making it merge with the text proper, allowing it to merely be a character trait without it being the entire point of the character. This is how good characterization is done.
Earl, though, is my favourite, having a coarse demeanour but also wisdom beyond his years. While it's not stated explicitly in the film, it's clear that he's been through a whole lot more than Greg has, and this allows him to deal with Rachel's illness a lot better than his friend. Where Greg's social shield doesn't even allow him to call Earl his friend, Earl is a lot more mature, which inevitably causes a rift between the two due to their different reactions to the situation. RJ Cyler is fantastic in the role, striking the right balance between the character's crude exterior and his intelligent exterior, and both lead actors do have a certain chemistry to make their interactions work.
Rachel, however, isn't quite as well characterized as the other two leads, but there's a certain realness to her deterioration, and Cooke captures that very well. For what may on the surface seem like a cancer film, it soon becomes clear that the focus is much less on her than on Greg and how his world is shaken by his friendship with her. That's not to say that Rachel is a bad character, though. She is eminently likable throughout, which makes it hit a lot harder when the cancer only gets worse for her. The film contains a bunch of odd and memorable side characters who add even more colour to the film, and nobody who's given any attention is anything less than intriguing.
Much of the film's charm comes from its humour, and while it can often be crude and strange, it's crude and strange in a way that seems very true to the characters who are spouting the lines, and there's an underlying cleverness to the dialogue that allows the humour to work. The script is filled as much with lively, funny dialogue as it is with emotional moments, if not moreso, and there's a few strange experiences that Greg and Earl have which are a blast to watch. It's not a pure comedy, though, and in between laughs, the film excels at presenting its scenes as experiences, particularly for Greg, who tries so hard to rob himself of them. Alongside that, the film is also often very touching, particularly as a result of Greg and Rachel's growing friendship, and in the end, it earns some genuine tears alongside its laughs.
Due to the change in medium, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl can't contain the various chapters that the book dedicates solely to exposition about the setting. However, it goes a step further, and seems to change the structure considerably, replacing a lot of what's lost from the novel with plenty of visual storytelling, most notably in the revised title cards and in montages of Greg and Rachel's growing friendship. This is, of course, for the better, as it allows director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon to make the film all his own despite the screenwriting credit from Andrews. While his film may ultimately follow the book's plot, it's the kind of adaptation that re-imagines the source material for the big screen instead of just transcribing it.
The cinematography of Me and Earl is quirky and distinctive, if recognizably indie. This is a film that often looks fantastic, and which doesn't look like much else out there. Framing is usually built around context, whether it's attempting to evoke the emotion a character is feeling, making room for a title card, or something else entirely. Usually this effect is great, but at times the camera work is a little too quirky for its own good. For example, there's one part where the on-screen action suddenly shifts so the ground is vertical with no particular reason behind it. It's at these points that the film comes across as trying a little too hard to call attention to itself, but this happens very rarely.
Ultimately, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a unique breed, as a young adult novel adaptation that won't be seen in theatres by the majority of audiences, based on a relatively unknown book and only coming to prominence in the aftermath of a film festival. However, don't let that dissuade you from watching it, because this is an excellent film, filled with great characters and great performances, and with the humour and charm and insight of the best films of its type. Even if you haven't read the book, the film is a must-watch.
9/10
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