Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015)

[PfR73]

The most buzzed about titles seem to be Me & Earl & The Dying Girl and Dope.

Me & Earl & The Dying Girl is from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (whom Wiki tells me was personal assistant to Martin Scorsese, Nora Ephron, Robert De Niro and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu before directing second unit on a lot of major films, and directing that new version of The Town That Dreaded Sundown). It sold to Fox Searchlight through some sort of financing and distribution deal reportedly worth up to $12 million.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is also the one of the chief directors for American Horror Story.

[ordinaryperson]

"Me, Earl, and The Dying Girl" wins the U.S. Dramatic Jury prize.

[hearthesilence]

I wish I can get excited about this movie, but I haven't enjoyed a single film based on a contemporary YA book. To be fair, I didn't even like books classified YA when I was at that age. Maybe it was the specific titles being pushed on us in school, but it's one reason I indulged in a lot of science-fiction between my comic book-obsessed youth and the stage I moved on to "grown up" literature, which feels like an endangered species these days.

(And classifying this as a Sundance "dramedy" isn't encouraging.)

James White seems interesting. The dying mother plot rang some alarm bells, but it sounds like it's better than you'd think.

[theflirtydozen]

I wish I can get excited about this movie, but I haven't enjoyed a single film based on a contemporary YA book. To be fair, I didn't even like books classified YA when I was at that age. Maybe it was the specific titles being pushed on us in school, but it's one reason I indulged in a lot of science-fiction between my comic book-obsessed youth and the stage I moved on to "grown up" literature, which feels like an endangered species these days.

(And classifying this as a Sundance "dramedy" isn't encouraging.)

Anyone else seen Me and Earl and the Dying Girl yet? I caught a showing last night and thought it was excellent. I don't dabble in the realm of YA fiction, but I feel the level of cultural awareness and lack of a contrived romance between Greg and Rachel surely sets it apart in that genre?
I was really surprised at the amount of Criterion love that was able to be shoved into 105 minutes. There were some scenes where I missed dialogue because I was trying to place the Criterion spines or movie memorabilia on display in the background. If you've ever spent an evening standing in front of your wall of DVDs making puns off of the film titles (don't judge me), you'll identify way too much with this movie

[domino harvey]

The biggest Sundance-to-audience bust in recent memory (and its epic failure to connect with audiences is up there with Happy, Texas in legendary status), it's interesting to watch what should be an easy crowd-pleaser and try to pick out how Fox's marketing so completely dropped the ball. I don't think the film is exceptional or even all that great, but it has better legs than a lot of other teen fare of late and it plays everything fairly cleverly-- though maybe too much so, as the too smart for the room vibe of the film's endless film references could potentially be an alienating device for much of the core audience of teenagers. If this film gets even a few kids interested in classic movies as a result, it will at least have done a good deed. The film's use of horrible parody videos of well-known arthouse fare is funny, but also a little too much indebted to Home Movies, and the film's best strengths lie elsewhere. The film is also offputtingly showy in its camera tricks and arthouse-aping, which at times comes off as a little desperate and insecure in the basic material.

But ultimately, though I think there's a lot of problems with it, I give it a marginal thumbs up for the parts it gets right, especially some clever montages that highlight the mundanity of teenage interaction, a late-period reveal of how unknowable even our best friends can be, and yes, the often hilarious parody films (My favorite being 2:48 PM Cowboy). It's clear Fox anticipated this film would be a major attraction, as the Blu-ray is packed with extras, including an interview between Gomez-Rejon and Martin Scorsese, and I look forward to working my way through them even though I'm not as wild about the film as I'd hoped. As far as superior teen entertainments go, I don't think the film holds its own for even a moment to the superior satiric insights of this year's Barely Lethal (also starring the titular me of this film, Thomas Mann), but there's enough that works here to merit a look.

[beamish13]

The biggest Sundance-to-audience bust in recent memory (and its epic failure to connect with audiences is up there with Happy, Texas

I think the $8 mill Miramax dropped on the completely forgotten The Spitfire Grill might have those two beaten. Getting back to Me and Earl, it did look too twee and fluffy for me to give it any serious attention, and I still don't think I'll ever watch it

[Newsnayr]

I must say that I absolutely hated this movie. I hated its heavy use of caricatures, its dishonesty about its plot for emotional effect, its extremely unlikable and unchanging protagonist, and especially its parodies, which I felt were insulting to the original films and extremely unfunny. I never got the feeling that Greg and Earl ever truly connected with classic films or that they watched such films for any significant reason besides the filmmaker's desire to shamelessly pander to the Criterion Collection aficionados.

[TheDudeAbides]

I must say that I absolutely hated this movie. I hated its heavy use of caricatures, its dishonesty about its plot for emotional effect, its extremely unlikable and unchanging protagonist, and especially its parodies, which I felt were insulting to the original films and extremely unfunny. I never got the feeling that Greg and Earl ever truly connected with classic films or that they watched such films for any significant reason besides the filmmaker's desire to shamelessly pander to the Criterion Collection aficionados.

I will certainly agree with *almost* all of your criticisms of the film; I quite liked it, but I see 100% why someone wouldn't. My only point of contention is that I quite enjoyed their parodies; yes they were self-aware and indulgent and definitely only made to pander to the criterion collection aficionados (myself included), but I did think they were pretty funny and those who've seen and appreciated those movies could laugh momentarily at their statement on the films.

[Roger Ryan]

Given all of the classic film references and a great soundtrack consisting of Brian Eno material plus new cues by Nico Muhly, I should have fallen in love with this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't believe a moment of it. The over-stylized high school scenes clash with the more realistic encounters between the two leads, the disingenuous first-person narration is grating, the "making bad movies no one is allowed to watch" conceit is contrived and there is little logic to why any of the characters behave the way they do. The one scene that wholly worked (Greg examining the contents of Rachel's bedroom) is tarnished by the subsequent narration that spells out what we had just seen for ourselves. Aimed at the young adult audience, I can only hope this demographic finds the films of Powell/Pressburger and Herzog as fascinating as the lead character does.

[barryconvex]

has any movie ever tried this hard to be cool? brian eno, herzog, claymation, disaffected black friend, self conscious narration. check, check, check, check and check...i'm not sure what's worse-the lame would be hipness of this or the over the top earnestness of the fault in our stars. i guess i'll go with the one that has a parody film called "pooping tom" but neither compare to the greatness that is the spectacular now or the still undefeated heavyweight champ of all high school films, election...

[jazzo]

...or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, still the most realistic high school experience I've ever seen on film.

[barryconvex]

i was thinking more of films within the last 15-20 years but yes, i agree with you...

[DarkImbecile]

I'd add Brick to the list of excellent recent high school films (not in depicting the actual experience, of course).

[barryconvex]

i have to admit it, i guess i like this movie more than i thought...i've spent most of my idle moments today thinking of parody titles for classic movies. some are maybe not so classic, the movie or my dumb title...

u-get-sued? i-sue-back!
crackdraft
the dick bank
bury my heart at claire's wounded knee
schindler's lisp
broadway kwaidanny rose
leon morin, cop
il post-it
red dessert
so long to the 120 days of salaam bombay!
a wombat under the influence
pauline is a bitch
Steve L'argent: story of a wide receiver
rosemary's booby
terry mulholland's driveway
the beer hunter