Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The beauty of ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL -- and it truly is a beautiful film, both visually and emotionally -- is that it doesn't pander to anyone: not to high schoolers, not to parents (though their depiction does border a bit on caricature), and not to those suffering from cancer (who are rendered here in all their complexity). It doesn't presuppose that teens are too predictable and stereotypical to appreciate the complicated; it doesn't assume that comedy shouldn't be tinged with deep sadness, and vice versa. It feels authentic. Greg feels authentic; as depicted by Mann, he is, in many ways, both like all teenagers and simultaneously unlike any we've met before. Ditto Earl and, to a lesser extent, Rachel. In fact, the entire cast is, as kids these days are apt to say, "perf," including Nick Offerman in the role of Greg's spacey sociology professor dad.

Which is all to say that Earl is fantastic. No wonder it was a hit and won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Is it totally quibble-free? No; the first half moves a little too deliberately and a little self-consciously, but the payoff of the second half -- particularly the last third -- is so great that any issues of twee-ness (we don't really need those title cards) can be forgiven. What we have here is an honest attempt to tell an honest story of friendship, loss, and survival in a teen movie. How many films in this genre can say they've done that?