Movie review: ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ is a movie full of life

It would be tempting to start a review of "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" with something clever and ironic, like, "This is the part of the review where I tell you about 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,' " to mimic the self-referential cadences of the movie's narrator.

But doing that would be a hackneyed device, one a hundred other movie critics are contemplating — and that would be a disservice to the earnest spirit lurking beneath the keep-it-cool trappings of this tender, smart, heartbreaking movie (which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival).

Let's start with that title, which lists the movie's three main characters. The "me" is the narrator, Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), a Pittsburgh high-school senior who tries to stay anonymous through his school day, keeping in contact with the numerous subgroups of students without ever joining one. Earl (RJ Cyler) is Greg's best friend — though the commitment-averse Greg refers to him as "my co-worker" — who hangs with Greg watching classic cinema and making comically low-rent parodies of them.

The "dying girl" is Rachel Kushner (Olivia Cooke), a classmate whom Greg doesn't know well. But when Greg's mom (Connie Britton) tells him that Rachel has Stage IV leukemia, she insists he go over to try to cheer her up. Calling the first meeting awkward is a gross understatement — but, over time, a friendship blossoms as Greg (and, shortly, Earl) helps Rachel take her mind off cancer treatments, hair loss and the other indignities of a terminal illness.

Here's where you might think you know where "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is going — and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and screenwriter Jesse Andrews (adapting his own young-adult novel) are way ahead of you. When Greg's narration kicks in with, "If this was a touching romantic story," you know the movie is going in a completely different and unpredictable direction. Though you can't even count on that, because Greg soon proves to be a less-than-reliable narrator.

Greg is a creative storyteller, though, and so is Gomez-Rejon. One of the sharpest touches in the film is the animation, by Edward Bursch and Nathan O. Marsh, in Greg and Earl's mini-movies — with such so-dumb-they're-brilliant titles as "A Sockwork Orange," "The 400 Bros" and "My Dinner With Andre the Giant." The shorts show not only Greg and Earl's respect for movie classics, but the filmmakers' love for their craft. (There's also a nice recurring animated metaphor, of a moose crushing a chipmunk, that perfectly illustrates how pretty girls — like classmate Madison, played by Katherine C. Hughes — affect unremarkable guys like Greg.)

If Greg sometimes goes for feigned cynicism, though, the movie doesn't. Its characters' emotions are raw and real, whether it's Rachel coping with her imminent death or its effect on her lonely mother (Molly Shannon), or Earl becoming exasperated with Greg's studied nonchalance, or Greg as he evolves in fits and starts from aloof observer of high-school life to a full-fledged participant.

Credit for that emotional clarity goes to the three strong leads. Cyler, a newcomer, provides low-key comic leavening and a dose of empathy. Mann tethers the film emotionally through its flights of cinematic quirkiness. Best of all is Cooke ("Ouija," "Bates Motel"), who portrays a young cancer patient without a trace of false nobility or forced sentimentality.

Above everything else, what's great about "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is how it nails the emotional state of the teen years, that divide between desperately wanting to be taken seriously and wanting to be allowed not to take anything else seriously. The movie bridges that gap beautifully and proves that a light touch is often the best way to tackle the heaviest topics.

spmeans@sltrib.com

Twitter: @moviecricket

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'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'

Three friends — one of them with leukemia — form a bond in this offbeat and thoughtful comedy-drama about growing up.

Where • Area theaters.

When • Opens Friday, June 26.

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

Running time • 105 minutes.