Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 
Year: 2015
Director: Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon
Country: US
Language: English

I find the latest trend of adolescent pictures revolving around someone dying of cancer to be somewhat irksome. In many cases (most notably the commercially successful The Fault in Our Stars) the illness acts as a cheap way to manipulate the viewers' emotion. Terminal illness has sadly become a very marketable commodity in the film industry. I'm also hesitant to watch films about Generation Y, because so many of them are filled to the brim with cliches and typical characters like the flamboyant gay best friend, the underdog geeky main character and his hot love interest. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a mixed bag.

Seventeen-year-old Greg (Thomas Mann)  has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia

Winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is quite a joy to film buffs who get to see glimpses of spoofs which involve their favorite films. I've always wanted to see My Dinner with Andre the Giant and I'm glad it was written,albeit briefly, into the film. Greg and Earl's obsession with Werner Herzog, in particular Aguirre the Wrath of God, leads to some very funny moments. There are also some very well developed scenes, such as the mesmerizing ending and Greg's heated argument with dying Rachel.

Unfortunately the film is too self aware for its own good. Every cliche arrives with a wink and a brief commentary ("I know this has been done before")  Film buffs are too smart for this "honesty" and have seen far greater commentary in far greater movies. Wayne's World isn't a "great" film, but it's acknowledgement of typical tropes is actually hilarious. Earl's character is problematic and borders on racism. He's a black guy who's living in squalor for no apparent reason (other to be "urban") and he speaks like how a KKK leader thinks a black guy speaks ("seen them titties yet?") Also despite the film being about a dying girl, the focus is on the male lead and how he is changed by HER cancer.

I was initially very excited to see this picture, but after I was a little disappointed with it. Brief instances of genius and superb camera work do not make up for lazy, cliched, somewhat sexist and somewhat racist writing overall. Does this film champion the film snob? Not at all, but it does give an effort. 3/5