Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), PG-13, ★★★★

Olivia Cooke and Thomas Mann. 

How do you react to a person you admire or a person that you pass by saying that the person is suffering from a life-threatening disease? It is complex and difficult to understand and process because 1) if it is a person you just pass by and sometimes interact with, the reactor is sympathetic and the person with the disease can realize that he or she is a burden to them. 2) If it is a friend that you cared about your whole school career, then, it is not an obligation to make the best for the victim but to know that he or she is dying and just live the best of times with the person and make the victim feel better. This film is a slice of heaven from the coming-of-age genre. The journey will evoke a certain feeling inside that will alter yourself to become a better person towards certain people.

Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is a high school senior telling a story of what describes the quote, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." He alludes to a man eating a lot of food with a girl playing the harp but then, he also comments that it involves him making a film for a leukemia-stricken girl. For years, Greg did not have a best friend per se but he seems to get along with some cliques like the stoners, jocks and theater geeks. He eats lunch with his favorite teacher, Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal) and his "co-worker", Earl (RJ Cyler). Greg and Earl make horrible spoofs of movies together but in the end, it is all about having fun.

When Greg comes home, his parents (Nick Offerman and Connie Britton) inform Greg that Rachel (Olivia Cooke), his old childhood friend, is diagnosed with leukemia, which undoubtedly causes him to feel awful because of a conversation he overheard about a "test" and awkwardly replies a joke. Greg's mom forces Greg to go hang out with Rachel and he sees Rachel's mom, Denise (Molly Shannon), drinking wine, coping with her illness. Greg and Rachel form a complex relationship over the next few weeks, even introducing her to Earl.

Weeks later, Rachel has undergone chemotherapy, causing her to shave her head and she thinks that she is ugly but friends inform her that she is pretty to be polite. Greg and Earl show Rachel some of their silly movies, causing her to laugh. Madison (Katherine C. Hughes), Greg's crush, suggests to Greg and Earl to make a film for Rachel. The guys think it is a good idea and commences to film their movie.

Greg and Earl sitting and pondering. 

I admire this movie a lot more than the movie last year dealing with the situation regarding teenagers and cancer, The Fault in Our Stars, which I thought that it was a movie going for the motions and trying to manipulate us with the dialogue and the "chemistry" between the two characters. This movie produces such interesting characters with refreshing dialogue that makes sense and most particularly, gives us dialogue that have teenagers talking in reality. The movie interweaves with humor, emotion and imagination regarding themselves and towards other people. The movie also sort of enjoys the joy of filmmaking of what they are going to present to Rachel. This movie sort of plays like a Wes Anderson movie with the quirky dialogue, narrative and the characters.

Mann is cast perfectly as the central role conveying our emotions and his emotions on-screen towards the situation regarding his friend and onto himself on what he will do to make Rachel better and also make his future brighter, as his character deals with his grades declining as he spends time with her before he goes to college. Cyler brings some edginess and humor onto the screen and even though Shailene Woodley gave a strong performance in The Fault in Our Stars, I believed Olivia Cooke's performance more because she brings realism to the situation regarding her sickness and does not become sentimental. Actually, the whole movie is not overly sentimental and manipulative to force us to grasp our emotions. The trio of central performances have a great balance of acting chops here.

There are noticeable supporting performances here with Nick Offerman playing an offbeat dad, Connie Britton playing the mother, Jon Bernthal as the teacher and Molly Shannon as a mother struggling with her daughter's illness. They are all sublime in the movie and bring a different energy onto the story.

What impressed and amazed me is the male/female relationship between Greg and Rachel. It is not a formulaic romance where they have to have sex where the script requires them and to talk too sophisticated that we, the audience, question whether teenagers recite great and formal vocabulary in the streets. Plus, there's enough humor and drama to balance the whole movie perfectly even though we know what Rachel's demise will be in the end. But, it is the journey toward her end that we are watching and it is a little sadder because we want their friendship to stay consistent and strong forever because they are interesting.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an appreciative and strong effort by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon that I want to see what he will conceive next from the latest script he is offered to direct. It is also a movie that persuades to divulge our feelings more toward ourselves and people in an expressive way and to make ourselves feel a little better. Also, it is a movie about the passion of imaginative filmmaking that we, unfortunately, do not get to see a lot of. This is a great coming-of-age surprise and teenagers and up will adore this movie. It is one of the best movies of the year.

****