Only the Good Die Young

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl lays on the quirk for affecting story

When it comes to movies about young people, you’d think that young love, partying and other fun things would be the go-to subject matter. Instead, in recent years the trend has been to adapt books about dystopian worlds and teenagers on the brink of death — not exactly the most uplifting fare.

That trend continues with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, based on the bestseller by Jesse Andrews. The “Me” is Greg (Thomas Mann), a friendly if slightly awkward boy whose main hobby is remaking old movies with his friend, Earl (RJ Cyler). When Rachel (Olivia Cooke), one of their classmates, is diagnosed with cancer, Greg’s mom (Connie Britton) arranges for him to hang out with Rachel to try to lift her spirits.

What is initially an obligation turns into an actual friendship as Greg and Rachel find out more about each other. But with Rachel continuing to fade and Greg faced with the end of high school and the decisions that come with it, whether they should continue meeting weighs heavily on both of their minds.

As written by Andrews and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the film attempts to subvert expectations about what a film like this should be like. For one, it’s truly funny. Whether it’s Greg’s goofy antics, the admittedly horrible films he and Earl produce, or the inanities of day-to-day life in high school, there is plenty in the film to make anyone, even a dying girl, smile.

Taking inspiration from the films that Greg and Earl remake, Gomez-Rejon also uses a variety of off-kilter camera angles and positions. Some of the more striking ones have a character facing right who is positioned on the far right side of the screen (or facing left on the far left side), a jarring decision that makes them look as if they’re staring off into oblivion instead of conversing with another person.

Other filmmaking techniques, like utilizing stop-motion animation to illustrate Greg’s heart being stomped on by Madison (Katherine C. Hughes), a beautiful girl on whom he has a crush, keep the film from getting bogged down on the inescapable fact that the film hinges on a girl who will most likely die by the end.

The main trio of actors does a solid job of selling the story’s quirks. Mann makes Greg highly relatable and caring without ever becoming schmaltzy. It’d be nice if Cooke, who also plays an afflicted character on Bates Motel, wouldn’t have to always be sick in her roles, but she certainly has a knack at connecting with them. As played by Cyler, Earl is a bit of an enigma, but one that you want to return to again and again.

Special note should also be made of Britton, Nick Offerman as Greg’s dad and Molly Shannon as Rachel’s mom. Each puts his or her years of movie/TV experience to great use, ensuring the supporting characters are memorable.

Although not exactly the same tone as 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl accomplishes much the same thing, allowing the audience to get caught up in an affecting story while also learning to appreciate the moments that each of us is given.

RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman and Thomas Mann in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman and Thomas Mann in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Photo by Anne Marie Fox

RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman and Thomas Mann in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Movie Review

The End of Oak Street can't live up to its Spielberg inspirations

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street

Photo by Daniel McFadden

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street.

Steven Spielberg is the iconic director of the last 50 years, so it’s no surprise that many other filmmakers have borrowed from his classic films. But most of the time those come in the form of references or homages, not straight up theft, which is what it feels like watching The End of Oak Street play out in front of your eyes.

Set in the early 1980s in an idyllic suburban neighborhood of an unnamed city, Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are parents to two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). They’re also possibly heading toward divorce, as Audrey is secretly writing a novel with a thinly-veiled plot about their life, and Brian is cagey about having to earn extra money with a pizza delivery job.

That all gets put on the backburner when a mysterious event takes their entire neighborhood back to the time of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a shotgun and sledgehammer, Audrey and Brian do their best to keep the family safe in their house. But the longer the ordeal goes on, circumstances force them out onto the streets and into the increasing danger that’s all around them.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film tries immensely hard to be like the Spielberg movies its filmmaker clearly adores, but fails at almost every turn. It never earns the broken family in ‘80s suburbia vibes that were prevalent in E.T., going all in right away in the opening scene with a neighborhood block party that feels forced. Other elements like a bully who has it out for Brian, the family dog that disappears, and an angry neighbor come across as the tropes they are and not as organic parts of the plot.

When it finally gets to its dinosaur sequences, they pale in comparison to those found in Jurassic Park. The strange manner in which the dinosaurs appear is a big part of that, but the action involving them forgoes ominous moments that could build tension for those that play up gore in an unexpected way for a PG-13 movie. Many of the attacks have so little emotional meaning that they come off as comical, which is entertaining but in a hollow way.

As if those weren’t enough, Mitchell - perhaps at the behest of producer J.J. Abrams (who made his own Spielbergian film, Super 8) - tries to honor Spielberg in other ways. Just like in Jaws, he employs the use of a split diopter lens, which keeps characters in both the foreground and background in focus. But instead of using it judiciously, it’s brought out in three separate scenes, including a laughable one with the four family members where it turns into overkill.

Hathaway, coming off of a role in The Odyssey that could earn her an Oscar nomination, is the best part of this film. But even her evident skills are dragged down by the ridiculousness of the story, which requires hysterics that even she can’t sell. McGregor can normally be counted on for a good performance, but he gives several line readings with strange cadences that make his already-underwritten character come off worse. Stella and Convery are okay, but their roles are unmemorable overall.

Mitchell and his team can never settle on exactly what type of film they were trying to make, and so even though The End of Oak Street has a few moments that work, they’re surrounded by many others that don’t. In trying to emulate Spielberg - there’s even a blatant Back to the Future (produced by Spielberg) rip-off towards the end - all Mitchell has done is show how difficult it is to be the master.

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The End of Oak Street opens in theaters on August 14.

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