Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

First Hit:  I was deeply touched by the story, quality of acting, and the full range of emotions I felt while watching.

Greg (Thomas Mann) has a poor view of himself. He’s a senior and has figured out a way to be both invisible and part of every group at school (we all remember the different groups in high school). His being associated with each group is at the level where he can say "hi" to each, but he’s not directly associated with that group to everyone else, so he has no up or down sides in these relationships. His association or non-association allows him to basically disappear from everyone.

His long term friend Earl (RJ Cyler) and he make films and each lunch together everyday in his sociology teacher's office, where they watch old films. The films he and Earl make are funny parodies of famous films (like Creature from the Blue Bathroom). When the camera pans across the titles of the film cartridges – the effect is hilarious and the audience gets to learn more about Greg and Earl with each title they have.

Greg’s parents are a hoot as well. His dad hangs around the house all day in odd outfits trying different kinds of foods. His mom inspects all his communication devices and leaves Greg feeling as if he has no privacy or control of his life - he feels smothered. Greg also is an amazing and funny monologist. Him mom tells him that one of his classmates has leukemia and wants him to visit her.

Although he complains he’s not friends with Rachel (Olivia Cooke) he reluctantly goes to visit her. Their friendship grows during her months of chemotherapy which drives Earl and Greg attempt to make a film for Rachel. One thing I wanted to see more of, was Rachel's ability to cut books – when you get to the end of the film, you’ll know what I mean – fascinating.

Mann was amazing. His ability to make his long monologues natural and revealing was divine. Cyler, although his role was smaller, was strikingly present in his scenes. Thoroughly enjoyed his character. Cooke was very strong and the revelations of her character as she progressed through chemo-therapy were great. Jesse Andrews wrote an amazing script (especially for Mann). Alfonso Gomez-Rejon captured the feeling of the characters with his inimitable direction.

Overall:  This film may not get seen by a lot of people and it definitely is one of the best films in the first six months of this year.

Project X

First Hit:  There wasn’t any acting because none was required.

This film is quite simply about a party that got away from itself.

The likelihood that high school kid could have a party like this in the neighborhood and house he was living in without the cops stopping it before it got the size it did is highly unlikely. The point, or so it seems in this film, is that a nerdy kid can make a lasting name for himself if he has a party of epic proportions.

Besides all this, the film was shot so that the audience was viewing it from an attendees camera point of view. This is the most interesting thing about this film.

The three main subjects Thomas (played by Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and JB (played by Jonathan Daniel Brown) hired Dax (played by Dax Flame) to film the entire event. This was the inventive part of the film because it was as if none of the actors were acting, they just had a party and filmed it.

The love interest in the film was between Thomas and Kirby (played by Kirby Bliss Blanton) which, of course had its ups, downs and up.

Mann was good as the kid who wanted to be more “in” but had some, but not acted upon, consciousness about how to go about it. Cooper was the real driver of the party to fulfill his own whims and wishes. As this character he did a very good job. Was he likable? Not really. Brown was fine as the overweight kid who was always the third wheel and who comes out of his shell a bit during the party. Flame was on camera, I think, three times and was perfect as the cameraman. He had the right look and answers to questions. Blanton was beautifully engaging and good as the girl who was willing to take a friendship with Thomas a little farther. Matt Drake and Michael Bacall wrote the script and I’m not sure of the inspiration except maybe through other films like Animal House and The Hangover movies. Nima Nourizadeh directed this and I’m sure in some ways it must have been both easy and difficult.

Overall: Not an inspiring or interesting film and outside of high school boys, I’m hard pressed to know who the audience is.