Review Roundup: Molly Shannon Stars in ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

Molly Shannon, Thomas Mann, and Nick Offerman star in the new drama-comedy, ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL. The film was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Jesse Andrews.

Based on the book of the same name, ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL follows the story of seventeen-year old Greg and his friend Earl who create parodies of classic films in their spare time. Greg's outlook on life changes when he befriends Rachel, a classmate of his who has leukemia.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL stars Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, and Molly Shannon.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

A. O. Scott, The New York Times: While the filmmakers are not above trying to wring a few tears, they don't wage an all-out assault on your feelings. There is a notable ABSENCE of aggression and of the kind of manipulation that yanks adjectives like "devastating" from the laptops of unwitting reviewers. The film is touching and small, but also thoughtful and assured in a way that lingers after the inevitable tears have been shed and the obvious lessons learned.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It sounds like the kind of tear-jerking swill critics piss on. Ha! The joke's on us. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl deserves to be the summer's sleeper hit. It's that sharply funny, touching and vital.

Peter Debruge, Variety: Anyone who buys a ticket to a film called "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" goes in fully expecting to cry. It's sort of a given. The surprise, then, is the laughter: the near-constant stream of wise, insightful jokes that make it so easy to cozy up to characters dealing with a tough emotional situation. The story of a high-school senior forced to befriend a classmate who has just been diagnosed with leukemia, and the sincere, nonsexual connection that forms as a result (sorry, "The Fault in Our Stars," but there's no nookie here), this rousing adaptation of Jesse Andrews' novel is destined not only to connect with young audiences in a big way, but also to endure as a touchstone for its generation.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: What also bothered me was that, like the characters in the very similar The Fault in Our Stars, these kids just don't feel like real kids. Teenagers can be creative and wise beyond their years and all that, sure. But the way the teens in Me & Earl create and relate is just such an adult's fantasy of how interesting teenagers would behave that the movie pretty immediately loses all relatable texture. Of course a movie can exist in its own world and be plenty powerful, but I think we're supposed to glean something very real from Me & Earl. But with all these precocious quirks crowding every frame, it's really hard to get to the real core of these people. Our lead, Greg, played by the wonderful Thomas Mann, is a super-charming guy who often does speak like a real teen. But he's too knowing, as is his dying friend, Rachel, played by the marvelous Olivia Cooke. I like these kids, and love these performances, but I also kinda don't believe them.

Ed Gibbs, The Guardian: The casting is excellent (especially Molly Shannon as Rachel's alcoholic mother) and the script is sharp and authentic. High-school students have plenty of growing pains to offload, and Gomez-Rejon clearly knows what makes them tick. His film is at once buzzy, fun and confronting.

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" succumbs to the same cloying too-cuteness and solipsism that often plague its glib and sentimental genre. But those limitations are leavened by the film's lively, ultimately affecting flourishes and sprightly voice. In the hands of filmmakers as energetic as Andrews and Gomez-Rejon, the teen weepie is a story that can be retold as many times as you can fully drench a hankie, wring out and repeat.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" isn't perfect - for starters, Molly Shannon's fine turn as Olivia's chardonnay-sipping mom seems to belong in another movie. But it's about as good as it gets for a summer movie, and it's many times superior to the similar "The Fault in Our Stars."

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A lot of "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" wears its heart on its sleeve. Other movies might not be able to do more than that, or would get bogged down in the tricks and traps of such a sly comment on teenage genre films. This one is different. It embraces feeling good, feeling bad, feeling odd and, crucially, that all-too-rare feeling of discovery.

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: The tragicomic story of the friendship between a misfit teen, his pal Earl, and - uh, you get the idea - is an illness pic without the guilt-inducing mawkishness or carpe diem platitudes. Film-geek friendly but thoroughly accessible and very funny, it has the makings of a mainstream hit. What's more, the girl lives. Maybe.

David Sims, The Atlantic: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is both helped and hindered by its status as a Sundance darling-it's hard to walk into a much-hyped drama about a teenage girl with cancer expecting it to reinvent the wheel. There are only so many ways to tell this story, and despite the self-aware voice-over and multiple films-within-a-film, there's little to Me and Earl's plot that hasn't been seen before, even if it handles its final moments much more deftly than its peers. Greg's personal evolution closes on a powerful note that helps rescue the film from being formulaic; but it's still a shame that it's Greg's story, first and foremost, that the film chooses to tell.

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