Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Very recently, my mother took me to see a movie, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. I was not certain about the movie (Oh, look, a movie about a girl with cancer! THAT hasn’t been done before. *cough* Fault in our Stars *cough*), but it turned out to be very good. Mom said that it would be a good idea to write a review of the movie, as well. I was also not certain about this activity (Oh, look, a movie about a girl with cancer! And I am reviewing it, despite never having done a movie review in my life! THAT should be easy to do properly!). Anyway, this is a new experience for me, so I hope that the readers of the internet will bear with me.
To begin, I will need to describe the plotline of the movie. (spoilers ahead) The movie centers around protagonist Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), an invisible high school student with low selfesteem and a penchant for making parodies of foreign movies. He becomes fast friends with Rachel (Olivia Cooke), the titular “Dying Girl”, after she gets Leukemia. Unlike typical cancer movies, the focus is primarily on the lives, misadventures of Greg, Rachel, and Earl (R.J. Cyler). As Rachel’s condition worsens, the story focuses slightly more on her suffering and Greg’s attempts to make a movie to cheer her up.
All in all, I’d give this movie a 3.45 out of 4 stars. The movie was good enough to make me laugh (and cry (manly tears, mind you)), and it’s not often that movies elicit that reaction from me. I consider the ending a bit of a low blow, though, in that I feel that the movie is tricking me. To understand this, you’ll have to watch the movie yourself. Yep, you’ll need to buckle down and actually watch the darn movie instead of just listening to some 15yearold finagle his way through his first review. Honestly, though, the movie was excellent, and I highly recommend watching it.
Catch you guys later,
Cole Szymonik
Cole is 15 years old. Cole has Asperger’s and is this site’s first young adult monthly contributor. Cole will write about a variety of topics. He will be starting Deep Run IT specialty center in the Fall. He dearly loves pet sitting, and is a total pet whisperer!
