Leigh Paatsch gives Me and Earl and the Dying Girl film four out of five stars

REVIEW: New film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will draw comparisons with 2014 movie The Fault in Our Stars. Most will agree this is far better.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (M)

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (The Town That Dreaded Sundown)

Starring: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, R.J. Cyler, Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon.

Rating: ****

A real sparkle in demise

Owing purely to its pedigree as a best-selling young-adult novel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is doomed to draw comparisons with The Fault in Our Stars.

In spite of their obvious similarities, let the record show these are two very different movies. And you know what? Most will agree Me and Earl is clearly the better of the two.

The ‘Me’ of the title is Greg (a star-making display from Thomas Mann), who also serves as our narrator. Most at high school have written him off as a misfit not worth bothering with.

EVERY MOVIE IN CINEMAS RATED

ME AND EARL STARS CATAPULTED INTO UNKNOWN

RJ Cyler plays Earl and Thomas Mann as Greg in a scene from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Picture: Fox Searchlight Pictures / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Which is just what Greg and his best bud Earl (R.J. Cyler) want. This means they are free to shoot kooky remakes-with-a-twist of the highbrow cinematic fare they’ve been watching all their lives.

While Greg and the ineffably droll Earl (whose collaborations include ‘Senior-Citizen Kane’ and ‘Eyes Wide Butt’) are charismatic enough to carry any movie as a duo, this movie takes everything up another notch with the seemingly saccharine introduction of ‘the Dying Girl.’

Rachel (Olivia Cooke) has been living with a cancer diagnosis for some time. But won’t be for very much longer.

So when Greg’s mother (described by her son as “the LeBron James of nagging”) forces him to visit Rachel — a classmate he barely knew when she was well — the awkwardness in the room borders on nuclear.

Olivia Cooke stars as Rachel and Thomas Mann becomes a star as Greg in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Picture: Anne Marie Fox / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

However, then the pair gradually react to one another. As narrator, Greg declares that this will not be a romance, and the usual cliches in this kind of tale will be avoided.

Though he can be shifty with the truth throughout Me and Earl, Greg is not lying here.

This unconventional friendship between these two self-styled loners permits director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (a former protégé of Martin Scorsese) and a fantastic cast (support players include Nick Offerman, aka Ron Swanson from TV’s Parks and Recreation) to throw some unexpectedly impressive shapes throughout.

Olivia Cooke’s Rachel has cancer but Me and Earl never becomes sentimental. Picture: Fox Searchlight Pictures / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

There are times where Gomez-Rejon breaks ranks with his contemporaries so completely with his framing of the tale that you’d swear you are watching a teen-friendly sequel to Birdman.

Best of all, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl never comes down with a case of the creepy-weepies once it looks like you-know-what will happen to you-know-who.

This unique film is far too full of life to all of a sudden stray down a dead end of its own making.

Originally published as Leigh Paatsch gives Me and Earl and the Dying Girl film four out of five stars