First, I would like to apologize to those who may find the title of this blog post to be a bit insensitive. In my attempts to be witty, every so often I cross the line. However, being the former family member of a cancer victim (may Mom rest in peace), I feel I have the right to make somewhat dark jokes about cancer. Sometimes it's the only way to cope, making dark-humored jokes about the malignant elephant in the room.
Moving on.
When The Fault in Our Stars came out in 2014, I wasn't sure I'd be able to see it. Granted, it had been over three years since my Mom's death to Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma. That being said, I wasn't sure how I'd react. Cancer seems to be very common in media for some reason. The one that has bothered me the most was when Star-Lord's mother dies of cancer at the beginning of Gardians of the Galaxy. That was seriously the most cliched cancer death I have ever seen. Sickening cliched. I knew I didn't like that portrayal of cancer, but I wasn't sure if I was ready for something a little more, I don't know, realistic. It might hit too close to home.
But several people who knew me pretty well and had been there for me when my Mom was dying saw it and highly recommended it to me. As a filmmaker, I would love it. As the daughter of a cancer victim, I would relate to it. I was probably going to cry, but I would LOVE the movie.
So, I finally bit the bullet and grabbed a copy from Redbox.
The Part Where I Watched The Fault in Our Stars
At first, it was awkward, because I'd just seen Divergent where Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort were sister and brother team/rivals Tris and Caleb Prior. Now, Shailene and Ansel were (quite literally) star-crossed lovers, Hazel and Augustus (Gus).
The only catch was that Hazel was suffering from cancer and was undergoing a clinical trial, which was helping to prolong her life (for now) but still left her unable to breathe on her own. Thus Hazel is condemned to a life of being hooked up to oxygen tanks everyone she goes. Considering that, as far as I know, Shailene does not have cancer or trouble breathing or anything like that, her performance as Hazel was extremely convincing. Maybe that's why I like her as an actress. The diversity of characters she is capable of playing believably is incredible!
Back on topic.
To add to this already doomed story, enter Augustus, the handsome cancer survivor who Hazel suddenly realizes she's in love with. Her only concern is that, as she puts it, she's a "grenade" who is going to go off eventually and she wants to cause as little emotional damage as possible when that happens. Augustus thinks this is a ridiculous reason not to fall in love and actively pursues a relationship with her.
Then tragedy strikes, but I'm not going to go too far down that rabbit trail. Suffice it to say it's not the tragedy you're probably expecting from my brief summary of the movie so far.
Overall, I loved the movie. So much so that I went out and bought the book and read the whole thing on a vacation (my parents couldn't understand why I was laughing for the duration of those long car rides). Yes, I said laughing. The story is hilarious, mostly due to Augustus' optimistic view on life. I liked it because it wasn't really a movie about cancer so much as it was a love story about two young people who just happen to have cancer. Cancer makes more of a cultural appearance than a main role. I thought that made it a much more accurate portrayal of cancer than that overly cliched death scene from Guardians of the Galaxy.
My one major quibble about the movie was the scene in the Anne Frank House. Through a string of events, Hazel and Augustus find themselves in Amsterdam, and they decide to take a tour of the Anne Frank House. Which is made interesting by the fact that Hazel has trouble breathing and there are a ton of stairs involved. Reaching the top of those stairs is a triumphant moment for her, even though she's winded and a little woozy. And then she and Augustus spontaneously kiss (for the first time), and everybody else in the room starts clapping. I understand all the people in their tour clapping because Hazel conquers the stairs despite her cancer, but there is no logical reason for everyone to start clapping when they kiss. Nobody else knows about their little love story or how Hazel has been afraid to really LOVE Augustus until this moment. Besides that, I think it's highly disrespectful of them to be making out in the room where Anne Frank was arrested.
...unless Shailene and Ansel were actually playing Anne Frank and Peter van Pels in an actual Anne Frank movie...
...which, in my opinion, wouldn't be a bad idea...
...except that they're much older than Anne and Peter were in real life...
...but, perhaps slapping Shailene and Ansel in a Holocause movie wouldn't be such a bad idea...
As a filmmaker with a deep respect for the Holocaust, I'm completely seriously about this. After all, if they can bounce between tough siblings in a dystopian Chicago to cancer patients in the real world and back to tough siblings in a dystopian Chiacgo, who's to say they wouldn't be able to pull off being in a Holocaust movie as well?
Just a thought.
The Part Where I Watched Me and Earl and the Dying Girl...
...because I Liked The Fault in Our Stars
Then came Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
And I literally thought, "Hey, I really liked The Fault in Our Stars, so maybe I should go see this movie too!"
As it turned out, I ended up accidentally renting two of them from Redbox in the same evening. The good thing that came out of that is I got twice as many Redbox PlayPass Points due to the mistake. Yay!
I'd seen Olivia Cooke (who plays Rachel in MEDG) as a girl with a lung condition on Bates Motel and she did an amazing job with that character. So, I assumed I would like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl because she was in it.
I also assumed I would like it because it looks very much like a Wes Anderson film, and I happen to really like Wes Anderson's style. Sadly, Mr. Anderson didn't have anything to do with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, but whoever made the creative decisions on the movie clearly got a lot of influence from Mr. Anderson's work...all the way down to his awkwardly borderline racist sense of humor. Wes Anderson can get away with it for some reason. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (the director of MEDG) got a little too close to the line for my comfort.
The Part Where I was Disappointed by Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
In the end, it might be a good thing that Wes Anderson wasn't involved with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl because it may have been the film to officially tarnish his reputation.
It was sad. Not just sad, like "Oh, Rachel's dying of cancer, this is so sad!" But just sad in that it wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.
Greg is the guy who tries to get through life with as little conflict as possible. He frowns on making friends, and really only starts a relationship with Rachel because his mother forces him to on the grounds that Rachel has been diagnosed with cancer. The whole movie is Greg trying not to admit he truly cares about Rachel even as he truly cares for her. The whole movie is Greg being selfish, too afraid to say the friend-word, too afraid of doing something wrong to attempt to do something right. Everything he does is for his own safety -- to appease everyone to avoid conflict. I think that's what makes his character so unbearable. The saddest part of the movie, really, is that he finally does something for someone other than himself THE DAY Rachel dies (of course she dies...it's in the title).
Other problem I had: His mom is way too pushy. I understand encouraging someone to visit a sick friend or relative, but his mom is WAY too over-the-top about it. And she keeps hounding him for the ENTIRE movie. And when him spending time with Rachel causes him to get kicked out of college, his mom freaks out...ignoring the fact that she forced him to hang out with Rachel in the first place.
The Part Where I Share My Final Thoughts about The Fault in Our Stars and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Basically, I liked The Fault in Our Stars much, much, MUCH better than Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
The Fault in Our Stars didn't have to try to be likable. It just wanted to share the story of two star-crossed lovers who happen to have cancer. The characters were relatable even if you've never had cancer. I really cared about them and their doomed relationship, to the point where I bought the book and put the movie on my Christmas wishlist.
The same cannot be said for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. The best scene in the entire movie is when Rachel is watching the movie Greg and Earl made for her right before she goes into a coma and dies. The second best scene is at the very end when Greg prepares to send this same movie to the college admisisons people to explain why his grades dropped so drastically in high school, and he puts a note on the DVD which says, "Caution: The last person to watch this immediately went into a coma and died". I laughed because having my mom die of cancer gave me a morbid sense of humor. However, others might find this note a tad bit offensive. The rest of the movie was about an insecure guy hanging out with a cancer patient because he felt like he had to. Consequently, Rachel is probably the most relatable character, and she ends up dead.
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