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Movie review: 'Me and Earl' proves books can become good movies

Movie review: 'Me and Earl' proves books can become good movies

At the end of the novel “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” the character of Greg Gaines insists, “When you convert a good book to a film, stupid things happen.” 

The movie “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” proves the fictional Greg (the “me” of the title) wrong. 

That’s because Pittsburgh native and author Jesse Andrews turned his book into a screenplay and added some beautiful flourishes near the end, underscoring the dramedy’s ideas about memory, self-image, life, loss and friendship. The details are delicate and poignant. 

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'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'

Starring: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, RJ Cyler. 

Rating:  PG-13 for sexual content, drug material, language and some thematic elements.


Talk about a boy wonder. “Me and Earl” was Mr. Andrews’ first published novel, and “Me and Earl” his first screenplay, although credit for the film’s success also belongs to director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, youthful leads Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and RJ Cyler and veterans Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton and Jon Bernthal. 

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Mr. Mann plays Greg, a senior at Schenley High School whose mother (Ms. Britton), forces him to spend time with a classmate, Rachel (Ms. Cooke), newly diagnosed with leukemia. He balks, prompting his mom to challenge, “Are you telling me you can’t do one nice thing for another person?”

He has spent his school years keeping any potential friends at bay and now his mother wants him to visit Rachel. “You do not have a choice in this matter,” she lectures, and he finds his life transformed but not in a typical, teenage, treacly way, although there may be tears.

He is not an average teen, after all. Greg and classmate Earl (Mr. Cyler), who lives in a rough section of the city, make quirky short films that are homages and takeoffs on arthouse classics. The pair serve as cast and crew, sometimes turning to sock puppets, papier mache figures, stop motion and other animation techniques to create “My Dinner With Andre the Giant,” “A Sockwork Orange,” “Rosemary Baby Carrots” and nearly four dozen other parodies. 

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Until Rachel, the movies had been for their eyes only, and the duo find themselves sharing their loopy library. Sprinkled throughout, the hilarious, inventive films are like shafts of sunlight slicing through the clouds as Rachel starts chemo. 

“Me and Earl” is about more than an ailing girl. It’s about the groups and subgroups in high school, the teacher who shares a poignant lesson nowhere on the syllabus but certain to last a lifetime, the difference one person can make in someone’s life. the isolation of talking trash about yourself and trying to remain detached when you should offer and grab a lifeline to others. 

It’s set in Pittsburgh, which is used organically, with no splashy, front-door views through the Fort Pitt Tunnel or stops at scenic overlooks. But you will recognize those hilly neighborhoods and there is no mistaking Schenley and the exterior of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.

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Schenley, which closed in 2008, not only is reborn as a high school, but doubled as a soundstage, and Mr. Andrews’ family home in Point Breeze serves as the Gaines residence. Mr. Offerman plays Greg’s dad, a sociology professor with a fondness for oddball meat products. Notable Pittsburghers turn up in small roles, with Tony Buba as a math teacher and jazz vocalist Etta Cox as a school principal, and there are countless nods to the city in other ways. 

The movie won the grand jury prize and audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and ignited a bidding war, won by Fox Searchlight. Ms. Cooke shaved her head for the role and her big, expressive eyes convey more than her increasingly scant dialogue, while the actors who play Greg and Earl are opposites and yet complementary. Greg fills gaps and silences by talking, talking, talking while Earl is a cooler presence who nevertheless can set his more fortunate pal straight like no one else.

Pittsburgh, already filmmaking backdrop for teen tales “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” makes it a three-peat but “Me and Earl” will resonate with adults, too. It’s easy to see why it was love at first sight at Sundance and why it’s been riding a wave of warm affection ever since.

Opens todayJUNE26 at AMC-Loews at the Waterfront, Manor in Squirrel Hill and Cinemark in McCandless.

Movie editor Barbara Vancheri:  bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies. 

 

First Published: June 26, 2015, 4:00 a.m.

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Connie Britton and Nick Offerman star in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl."
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