MovieChat Forums > Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) Discussion > Massively overrated art house flick

Massively overrated art house flick

posted 9 years ago by jerseysprung
12 replies | jump to latest

I was eager to see this movie based on the previews and the reviews. I can say the previews were better than the movie itself. Its chock full of pretentious artsy irrelevance. It really glosses over the actual gritty source material (teen girl dying of cancer) in order to appear ultra hip.

Way too many old movie references (and you'll be lost if you havent seen these movies). Rachel (the girl with cancer) is under-developed as a character. We hardly get to know anything about her. Greg the main character is not likeable at all. The movies he "makes" I dont think even add to the story because they are difficult to follow. Then somehow his dream girl Madison decides to ask him to the prom? That part made no sense.

I was expecting something deep, heartfelt and lasting given the basis of the story. But there was nothing here. It's an artsy film that is more about Greg (who again is completely annoying) than the girl.

I'm honestly not sure how this film got such good reviews from critics. They seem to like arthouse junk that the casual public sees as rubbish though. So no surprise here.

[–] cengaveri 9 years ago

This is not an arthouse movie , are you dumb ?

[–] legendlength 9 years ago

The clip in IMDB didn't impress me at all. Can anyone explain if it doesn't represent the film well? Without giving too many spoilers if possible.

[–] jerseysprung 9 years ago

The trailer spells out the entire movie. Except the problem is that from the trailers you expect Greg and Rachel to adopt a very close friendship. But they dont, at least it doesnt come off as them being very close at all because they really dont have many scenes together. No real chemistry there.

The movie is really about Greg's own emotional problems. We see him interact with his teacher, with earl, and with his parents. The movie should have been about Rachel, but it wasnt.

[–] legendlength 9 years ago

My problem in particular was the dialog in that clip. It didn't seem well written or acted for my taste. So I wonder if that style is just a bad sampling or if it continues throughout.

I normally don't ask like this but the rating is so high I thought I'd double check.

[–] eniemask 9 years ago

That's what makes the movie good lol that it wasn't about Rachel he's not like able she's your average girl with cancer, he has problems in the end she dies. Nothing more nothing less the movie tells you that throughout countless times. It's no pretentious it's just simple lol

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] fanatic21 9 years ago

Maybe this is because I read the book first (where the girl got literally only a couple scenes, and Greg remarked all the time that she was boring and he didn't like her.)

In the film though, I thought they did a great job going more in depth to Rachel's character, and I thought it was obvious that her and Greg developed a close relationship and cared for each other. The movie was about Greg, and it showed (IMO) the value of opening yourself up and developing special friendships, even if they are short lived. I loved the actress and wouldn't have minded more scenes with the girl, but I thought she got a lot of good and effective scenes.

[–] DimensionsINC 9 years ago

Agreed with fanatic21.

[–] bewildERINg0 9 years ago

I decided to read the book first, and I definitely liked movie-Greg better. A lot of your complaints can be better explained in the book version of these characters- it's NOT a deep and heartfelt story when it's told from Greg's POV. Obviously the end is heartbreaking, but when it comes to Rachel, the movie still develops her more than the book did. The whole point of the book is that it's not a typical heartfelt cancer story and Greg is actually a pretty big dick.

There's even a part of the book where they try to make Rachel's movie and Greg realizes that they really didn't know Rachel at all and trying to make a movie about her was selfish. Movie Greg is much less of a douche than book Greg, but regardless that's kinda the whole point. It's definitely no Fault in Our Stars which is why I like it much better.

[–] benman46 9 years ago

Art house? It showed a my local cinema. As for your rant 

[–] fede_4488 9 years ago

This moron doesn't know what an art-house "flick" is.

Let me guess: you hated Juno too, right?

[–] italianpride17 8 years ago

He clearly dislikes movies above his intelligence level aka most movies