This movie urges you to understand the value of your life’s time.

Three main characters:

Me: Greg Gaines

Earl: Earl

The Dying Girl: Rachel Kushner

We need to give a standing-O to the director (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon) and his writers, etc., because this movie just has a way of having you live along with its characters. This film is real. (The cinematography definitely adds to the experience! It’s got a sort of "Moonrise Kingdom"/"The Grand Budapest Hotel" color scheme and angle.) This film is just one of those new-perspective kind of films.

*Spoilers within this paragraph*

Rachel is dying. Although through deductive reasoning I am confident that you all could put the puzzle pieces together. Greg, although initially having been prodded by his nagging mother to spend time with this dying girl, develops a fluid and affectionate relationship with Rachel. As Rachel declines, Greg increases his attentions toward her; he introduces his best friend Earl and ultimately his and Earl's terrible, terrible short films. Rachel, however, is enthralled. These short clips are equivalent to children paraphrasing long books; Greg and Earl’s creations are short, crude, and honestly just horrific high-school-esque productions. But, again, Rachel is enthralled. Greg - unable to trust himself enough to express his teenage emotions for Rachel’s uncertain future - loves her through sharing, through giving, through creating a film for his Dying Girl.

The greatest aspect I took away from "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" was I felt. Not second-hand feelings, but a very real compassion. The script works in such a way that it pokes fun at thought. It challenges over-thinkers to over-think to the point that they are forced to break down a seemingly insurmountable event and well, think about 1) how they will never understand, and 2) how not understanding is sometimes all that anyone is able to do at the end of the day.

Rachel, the Dying Girl, epitomizes the un-understandable concept that some things just cannot be understood. Greg, the “Me” of the title, speaks for the ones who are left to untangle the un-understandable concept at the end of the day, at the end of the movie.

We, as the audience, are then bestowed a precious gift: to watch Rachel and Greg and Earl grapple with the web of life events and of teenage awkwardness. This movie reminds us the importance of human interaction and the inseparability of friends, and how those two aspects transcend time, as well as the absence of time.

Greg and Earl and Rachel; they are us and we are them. And they gently remind us that life gets in the way of our lives; do not forget to find the value.