by Ken B.
Dying teenager movies have become a bit of an oversatured brand on the page and on the screen (both big and small) in the past couple years, but if a piece of art can use a tried-and-true story format to create something unique and special, it’s proof that the trend hasn’t become worn out just yet. And that’s where Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes in — the new film directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is based on a 2012 novel of the same name by Jesse Andrews, and focuses on Greg (Thomas Gaines), a high school senior who is voluntold to start hanging out with a leukemia-diagnosed classmate named Rachel (Olivia Cooke). And as the unwritten rule of fiction manifests: complications ensue.
I like this trailer. I like the feel it brings, of a warmness without feeling overly cutesy or precious, and if that mood is representative of the movie, then it stands to reason I may have a vested interest in that as well. I think such a prediction may hold true, considering the ecstatic praise that has floated out of Sundance for the film as well as U.S. distributor Fox Searchlight dropping a cool $12 million on the release rights for it, so suffice it to say my attention is piqued.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will be released on June 12, 2015, in the United States.
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