Movie Crush Monday: CT & Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
It's really, really rare for either of us to choose a movie for #MovieCrushMonday that's still in theaters, but this is a movie that's well worth the exception.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and it was a wild success. Fox Searchlight bought it for $12 million, which is the biggest sale in the history of Sundance. I remember reading about that sale at the time (Sundance happens in January), and being astounded. Because on paper, Me and Earl sounds like a million films you've already seen.
Since it's still in theaters, I'll be super careful about spoilers but here's the premise per IMDB: High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Jesse Andrews wrote the script based on his own novel (which I am now morally compelled to find and devour), and it's his first feature which I'm endlessly impressed by.
That's how incredible this film was. I want to go see it again and again, I want to recommend it to everyone I know, I want to read the novel. To be honest, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this movie since I saw it.
Now the premise of a movie about teenagers with cancer sounds like the least amount of fun possible. And I'll be honest with you, I bawled like a teeny tiny baby through most of the movie (but if you're a regular around these parts you know I cry at most commercials), but the best thing is that Me and Earl wasn't JUST sad. It was a funny, realistic, beautiful look at friendship and grief and the ways that we're good or bad at loving each other. Or loving ourselves for that matter.
I was really impressed by the filmmaking behind Me and Earl. It's stylistic, using jump cuts and camera pans and stop-motion animation in a way that doesn't feel pretentious. Instead, somehow they seem to enhance the feeling of reality in the film. Often, when a film is about something really heavy, the instinct is to make the filmmaking itself as invisible as possible. And don't get me wrong, I have zero problem with that. But Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl's director), took the opportunity to make a movie that's not just touching and sad, but interesting and engaging.
The other element of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl that you just have to talk about is the acting. These have to be some of the best performances I've ever seen, especially in the young cast. Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, and Olivia Cooke all create characters that feel full and round. They seem like actual teenagers, which is unfortunately rare lately. They have histories that stretch back years beyond the scope of the film and affect their choices inside the movie's narrative. By the end, I felt like I knew them, like I'd gone to school with them or I was their mother or I'd grown up next door.
All of that creative goodness led to a film that is going to stay with me for a long time. I already plan on seeing it again while it's in theaters, and if I've run into you in person in the last week I've probably already talked your ear off about it.
It looks like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is in theaters almost everywhere by now. Go see it. You'll cry and then you'll be glad that you did.
Happy Watching!
CT
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and it was a wild success. Fox Searchlight bought it for $12 million, which is the biggest sale in the history of Sundance. I remember reading about that sale at the time (Sundance happens in January), and being astounded. Because on paper, Me and Earl sounds like a million films you've already seen.
Since it's still in theaters, I'll be super careful about spoilers but here's the premise per IMDB: High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Jesse Andrews wrote the script based on his own novel (which I am now morally compelled to find and devour), and it's his first feature which I'm endlessly impressed by.
That's how incredible this film was. I want to go see it again and again, I want to recommend it to everyone I know, I want to read the novel. To be honest, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this movie since I saw it.
Now the premise of a movie about teenagers with cancer sounds like the least amount of fun possible. And I'll be honest with you, I bawled like a teeny tiny baby through most of the movie (but if you're a regular around these parts you know I cry at most commercials), but the best thing is that Me and Earl wasn't JUST sad. It was a funny, realistic, beautiful look at friendship and grief and the ways that we're good or bad at loving each other. Or loving ourselves for that matter.
I was really impressed by the filmmaking behind Me and Earl. It's stylistic, using jump cuts and camera pans and stop-motion animation in a way that doesn't feel pretentious. Instead, somehow they seem to enhance the feeling of reality in the film. Often, when a film is about something really heavy, the instinct is to make the filmmaking itself as invisible as possible. And don't get me wrong, I have zero problem with that. But Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl's director), took the opportunity to make a movie that's not just touching and sad, but interesting and engaging.
The other element of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl that you just have to talk about is the acting. These have to be some of the best performances I've ever seen, especially in the young cast. Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, and Olivia Cooke all create characters that feel full and round. They seem like actual teenagers, which is unfortunately rare lately. They have histories that stretch back years beyond the scope of the film and affect their choices inside the movie's narrative. By the end, I felt like I knew them, like I'd gone to school with them or I was their mother or I'd grown up next door.
All of that creative goodness led to a film that is going to stay with me for a long time. I already plan on seeing it again while it's in theaters, and if I've run into you in person in the last week I've probably already talked your ear off about it.
It looks like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is in theaters almost everywhere by now. Go see it. You'll cry and then you'll be glad that you did.
Happy Watching!
CT
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