Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- Movie Review

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- Movie

Directed by: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Screenplay by: Jesse Andrews
Cast-
Greg: Thomas Mann
Earl: R.J. Cyler
Rachel: Olivia Cooke
Other actors aka the adults in the movie: Molly Shannon, Connie Britton, Nick Offerman, John Bernthal


I was so excited to see this movie!!  I read the book recently and just laughed and laughed and loved every minute of it.  Here's my review of the book, if interested.


What I Loved:
I loved the Pittsburgh-ness of it.  This movie shows Pittsburgh as it is.  It really liked that it didn't try to make the city look nicer.  This is what Pittsburgh looks like.  This is what city schools look like.  Everything is not new and shiny.  Everything isn't shitty either.  It's just a city that has beautiful parts and parts that are aging.  The kids don't eat outside or have campuses with multiple buildings.  The streets are lined with cars... there are always cars in your way, always.  The only thing that was missing was the lawn chairs people put out to protect their parking spots.

I liked the changes that were made for the most part.  The biggest difference to me were the movies that Earl and Greg made.  In the book they were said to be pretty terrible.  But in the movie, I thought the movies were kind of dope.  Of course, also there's that final movie that Greg makes for Rachel...  and well, it was way better than the one in the book, and WOW it had a much more powerful moment.

Rachel!!!  We actually get to know more about Rachel in the movie.  That's the one thing I felt lacking in the book, we never get to "know" Rachel.

Another thing that made this movie stand out was the way it was filmed.  I'm not a movie expert, so forgive my uneducated way of describing this part.  There was a lot of cool shots that made the feel of this movie feel original.  The only way I can describe them is patient shots.  It wasn't your typical fast cut back-and-forth movie and TV that we're used to.  There was a lot of pausing on a characters face that felt almost uncomfortable at times, and I think that's because I'm not used to it.  By the end of the movie, I just appreciated that it did something different with the filming and editing side of it.  It truly felt like an indie film in all the best ways.  Sort of like 500 Days of Summer and Juno.

What I Didn't Love:
They took out a lot of the lewd humor that made the book so funny for me.  I get that they were probably trying not to be offensive and appeal to a wider audience, but I was missing those LOL moments.  Don't get me wrong, the movie was still funny... just not in the same way.

The characters were definitely much better looking than described in the book.  I mean, it's Hollywood, of course they are.  But Greg was saying he looked like a groundhog throughout the movie, and I was like ummm... you are the cutest boy!!  I just didn't buy that he didn't know he was adorable.  And Rachel was stunning... even with no hair.


Final Reactions: I SO hope you see this movie.  It's worth seeing.  In a sea of John Green books being made into movies, here is a YA book that is about something different.  It's funny and emotional.  It's got imagination.  Not to say John Green's stuff isn't great, it's just typical in the YA world, where this is something that surprises me that it was even made into a movie.


For your entertainment, I will share with you this:

**I took pics for a book club challenge while I was at this move... I think it's only fair that I let you see my shenanigans**

Have you seen this movie??  If so, what were your thoughts?  Did you read the book?  Are you planning on seeing this?