Coming of age is a state so difficult to explain; with its ups and its downs, its laughs and its frowns (and there aren’t anymore rimes for that). Making decisions, getting used to life, knowing how to deal with situations… Growing up has been a lot of film makers concern as it is so rich in emotions and strong feelings. Not a lot of them have been able to capture the essence of teenage years in their true form, with the exception of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
We’ve seen cancer in The Fault in Our Stars, My Sisters Keeper, and all that cliché stuff we’ve all got lying around in our Young Adults collection; but this is one of a kind. A delicate portrait of how these terrible extremes of life could affect each and every one of us: told through the invigorating eye of Greg, 17 year old boy swimming through the decisions that one may encounter in the beginning of their adult life. The film is actually a film within a film, which somehow makes us forget the story is just a series of images on our screens; a fresh and fragile mise en abyme.
No doubt an emotional rollercoaster, soaring through the comedy of high school and stereotypical teenage life, then suddenly dropping down to the chills of illness and grief; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a slowly unrolling piece of poetry, snippets of a metaphorical life climaxing into the act of creating – represented by Greg and Earl.
