June 12 2015
Shortly after starting substitute teaching in the
spring of 2004, I was in for a shock. I had done one other day as an assistant
for special education and just watched, but this second time, I was quickly
switched to another classroom and suddenly asked if I would be OK with helping
teens in the locker room (undressing) and then manning the deep end of the
swimming pool for a day field trip. *
Well, I don't swim (that is a problem), and I've never
done anything that could procreate a child, so I was shocked at being invited
to step into something like this. I went
home early, but with a full day's pay. I
scratched that particular place from the profile. *
A few years later, on a Friday evening in February
2009, I got a surprise cell phone call asking if I were interested in a job
supervising low income teens doing fund raising in
shopping malls. I had never filled out
anything online suggesting an interesting in doing anything like this. *
In the indie Sundance hit Me and Earl and the Dying
Girl, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, based on the
novel by Jesse Andrews, the 17-year-old high school senior Greg (Thomas Mann)
and budding filmmaker is challenged by his progressive-thinking parents (his
dad is a sociology professor) to develop a platonic but real friendship with a
female classmate Rachel (Olivia Cooke) after everyone learns of her leukemia
diagnosis. His bonding to the classmate is practically mandatory.
Greg opens the film with a narrative, where he
describes his shyness and then his strategy to mix well with every group by
remaining mellow. Then he tells us how
he befriended Earl (RJ Cyler), and African-American
kid in a lower income neighborhood on his way to school (in Pittsburgh). Together they made a large library of
'Claymation' short films that satirize famous hits said to really exist in
the closing credit. *
Greg does use the films to entertain Rachel, but the
film does test the boundaries of friendship, given the circumstances. Greg's history teacher (rather uncouth in his
own coverage by tattoos) gives him slack on term papers, but Greg's attention
to Rachel takes so much time and effort that he develops 'senioritis', and his
college admission is rescinded. Well, maybe there's another way (spoiler). *
No question, Greg is as likeable as teens get. He probably did learn a lot more taking care
of Rachel than from books. He does, as
David Brooks writes in 'The Road to Character' (soon to be reviewed on my Books
blog) learn to 'be good', although it seems he already is. The actor's looks and body language and
personal values resemble those of Belgian singer and actor Timo Descamps. *
Technically, the film (in 2.35:1 widescreen)
manipulates the geometry of many indoor shots, making, for example, high school
hallways meet each other at acute angles.
The scenery of the Washington Heights area of Pittsburgh is
effective.
The film sold out the last night at FilmfestDC, so I saw 'Limited Partnership' (April 25) which
turned out to be a very good thing.
The official site is here
(Fox Searchlight and Indian Paintbrush).
I saw the film before a sparse crowd Friday afternoon at Angelika Mosaic
in Fairfax. Jurassic is big distraction.