This is not a love story

I saw it three times. Yes,it was painful because we were all that kid -- geek, awkward, nowhere with girls.

The movie is honest, funny, and I will see Olivia Cooke's unreal face in front of me for months. (And she did shave her head; I wondered about that.) R.J. Cyler gave perfect balance to the lead actor's awkward role.

The best thing about this movie is the writing; it crackles at times with insight into the outsider's life.

I am much aggrieved that it only earned four million at the box office nationally. It's worth a lot more.

There are about four films that can overcome the "seen it" cynicism I have, unlock my heart and make me feel genuine feelings. In other films I can appreciate that the film is beautiful and emotional, but there are only four that can really get to me. The first was Crash, the second was The Green Mile and the third was Boyhood. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl just scored the fourth slot on that extremely small list. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's film is a beautiful cocktail of wonderful things. Its quirky and charming and witty and touching and somber and delicate and completely beautiful. Its got elements of about six of my favourite films of all time, and the fact that it slam dunked Sundance doesn't even surprise me a bit.

Thomas Mann's Greg is a weirdo. Imagine that Napoleon Dynamite went to Cady Heron's school from Mean Girls, hated all the clicks and became a cynic. Mann shades what could've been a completely unlikeable protagonist with wonderful colours and depth, so much so that when his friend Earl explains to Rachel why Greg is so averse to being friends, we realise we've actually known the whole time. That's probably the most beautiful part of Gomez- Rejon's direction - he never comes out and beats you with information, he leads you gently to it and makes you realise it yourself. RJ Cyler takes Earl, a generic Pedro-type sidekick and makes him just the slacker you'd expect, but with incredible qualities underneath. Olivia Cooke makes the audience love her with her quietly devastating portrayal of a girl with leukaemia. All I can say is that she is a worth recipient of my annual Patricia Arquette Award For Character I Most Want to Hug.

Considering this film has maybe one actor I'd ever heard of, there's a huge pool of talent even in the supporting cast. John Bernthal is good in everything. Nick Offerman is amazing as Greg's stay at home intellectual dad, and Molly Shannon steals every scene as Rachel's emotionally destroyed mother. Keep an eye out for Matt Bennett's utterly bizarre but hilarious Scott Mayhew as well.

Jesse Andrews' screenplay strikes an incredible balance between comedy and drama. Its very easy for a film about cancerous teens to become completely depressing and tedious, but the witty dialogue, incredible spikes of humour and quirky characters make the film beautiful. Andrews isn't trying to make a statement, he's just telling a story about a normal boy who strikes up a friendship with a normal girl. The dialogue is as real as any movie I've ever seen, and the use of minimal effects and hand-held camera really created an authenticity that made me walk away feeling like I've just watched a highly personal reflection, and not a work of fiction.

I have to start my review with discussing the inevitable comparisons with "The Fault in Our Stars". John Green fans would find it blasphemous to say this is a superior film but it certainly is. I don't think that I can argue that the characters in TFIOS are more realistic, but the whole unique style and quirkiness of MAEATDG make it a true classic of the teen genre like "The Breakfast Club" or "Breaking Away". It as important as many of the films to which Earl and Greg pay homage with their own hilarious versions.

So many of the same subjects that one finds in any film about the coming of age of high school students exist in this film, but the director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon puts his own stamp on what could otherwise be called cliché. Kudos to Gomez-Rejon whose previous work has been with several Fox TV shows. He should have a good career in film from here on out.

Olivia Cooke as Rachel, Thomas Mann as Greg, and RJ Cyler as Earl are all fantastic. I was familiar with Olivia Cooke before but not the other two. I expect to see a lot more from all of them.

The adults are all superbly cast as well. Molly Shannon spends the movie with a glass of white wine in one hand drowning the pain of dealing with her daughter's plight. Connie Briton and Nick Offerman are wonderful as Greg's parents, with Nick showing that the eccentricities of the child do not fall far from the tree.

I saw this tonight at a screening in Denver at an art house cinema called "The Mayan" It was built probably in the 30s or 40s most likely a single cinema that they did a pop top on to create two more theaters. Those two upstairs theaters are odd to say the least. The leg room is less than economy class on Spirit Air and the screen is not much more than double the size of my screen at home. Probably less that 150 seats as well.Weird place to show the film, since the theater downstairs is really quite nice. I bring this up because I hope this film gets seen by more than the art- house crowd. It really should have mass appeal. I assume Fox hopes to build strong word of mouth on Me and Earl. Well let me help them. Just go see this film. You won't regret it.

I saw Me & Earl last week at Sundance and have not stopped thinking about it. That is a long (6 day) shelf life. What more can one ask from a film? The writing and execution is elite quality. All scenes seem necessary. Parent/child relationships, peer relationships, teacher/student relationships all are captured in humorous and touching ways. Life and death realities are also visited through the lens of "kids" who make as much sense as possible when facing the grim possibilities of severe illness.

Sorry to be redundant from other reviews but this darn film has HEART and should be required viewing for anyone who sees at least one movie a year.

Thanks to the team that made this one happen.

It would be easy to criticize the fact that Me & Earl & the Dying Girl appears to have been genetically engineered to be a summer box office moneymaker (Fox Searchlight and Indian Paintbrush have already snatched up the rights for a record- breaking $12 million). It's an adaptation of a young adult novel about adolescent friendship in the midst of terminal illness, which is hot in Hollywood right now thanks to The Fault in Our Stars. Basically, I went in to this film wanting to despise it for its utter marketability. Upon seeing it, however, I was reminded that movies can be commercially successful and good at the same time—and that's okay. The film chronicles the senior year of Greg (Thomas Mann), his friend Earl (R.J. Cyler), and Rachel (Olivia Cooke), who has been diagnosed with leukemia. Though all of the teen dramedy tropes are present—awkward parents, the teacher who gets it, the exploration of high school cliques—the excellent supporting cast keeps the narrative fresh. Greg's parents (Connie Britton and Nick Offerman) add an eccentric jolt of parental weirdness to their scenes, and The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal takes archetypal cool teacher role into some original territory with his tattoos and battle- scholar vibe. While I found myself wanting more in regards to Rachel's character, the film's treatment of her friendship with Greg is both darkly funny and realistically somber. This is one movie that it's safe to see regardless of its soon-to-be huge commercial appeal. –Alex Springer