Closely following film criticism has a way of draining all the surprise and mystery from a new release. Not necessarily with regards to plot, but for general quality; read enough reviews, and you know what you’re signing up for when you shell out for a ticket. It’s easy enough to lump movies into categories of “agreed on as good, but with its detractors” and “agreed on as bad, but with its champions.” Which is what makes a film like Me And Earl And The Dying Girl so exciting! At Sundance, the coming-of-age cancer comedy inspired raves and vitriol alike. Our man Mike D’Angelo couldn’t make it past the thirty-minute mark, and good ol’ Noel laid out his #hottake as follows:
“It’s easy to nitpick Me & Earl & The Dying Girl. Start with Earl, who’s not really a character so much as a construct: the foul-mouthed black friend who dispatches sage advice but doesn’t really seem to have a life outside of whatever he does for Greg. Rachel too barely seems to have her own interests and desires, beyond the willingness to be Greg’s companion. Meanwhile, Greg and Earl’s little movies are both preposterously elaborate and a shameless sop to film buffs; and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s camera moves are often distractingly showy.”
But in addition to making a fan of frequent Dissolve contributor and dependable critic David Ehrlich, Me And Earl And The Dying Earl also cleaned up at Sundance’s award ceremony, taking home the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic entries and the Grand Jury Award in the same category. It’s been a minute since I really had no idea what to expect from a film, so Me And Girl And The Dying Girl has been an exciting question mark these past few months. The original trailer offered plenty of pop-culture literacy and teen wit, and the newly released spot shows that there’s plenty more where that came from. Think longingly about how your own teen years were sadly devoid of whip pans, and check out the new preview for Earl And Girl And The Girling Earl below:
The trail of the tape
Title: Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Screenwriter: Jesse Andrews
Cast: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, Ronald Cyler II, Jon Bernthal
Release date: June 12, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “Anyway.”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
Something about the intertitle that proudly name-checks 500 Days Of Summer and Juno feels like an ill omen. Both were decent films with a modicum of true cleverness, but suffered from a chronic case of self-satisfaction (not to mention overexposure from a highly vocal fanbase). Any film that declares itself to be not like the other films it so clearly resembles cannot be trusted. And yet, there appear to be ample charms in the mix as well. Girl And Earl And The Earling Girl seems worth a whirl, if only to discover which of its haters are simple churls, and to put an end to the mystery around this film that continues to swirl. Pearl. Squirrel. Unfurl. Someone take this laptop away from me.