Often times, when people view media and published movies, they want to feel a consistent emotion throughout the entire film. Whenever a production violently shifts the tone from one established feeling to another, then the viewers are stunned and jolted into a sense of something that is unwelcome. However, where “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” shines is that it manages to grapple with two completely opposite ideas of comedy and tragedy and present them both alongside each other in a way that does not cancel the other out.

The beginning of the movie is filled with fun and joy, with an introduction to protagonist Greg (Thomas Mann) and Earl (R.J. Cyler), his close friend. Greg is insecure and unconfident in himself, while Earl is chill. They worked together before the beginning of the movie to be filmmakers, parodying various movies and making them their own. This lighthearted fun and joy continue even after Rachel (Olivia Cooke) is introduced into the mix. She is diagnosed with Leukemia, and out of pity, Greg’s mom forces him to hang out with her. However, as they continue to be around each other, they become very close friends. He manages to bring some joy into her life while she helps him to gain some confidence in himself. To do something nice for her, Greg gets together with Earl to once again make a movie. This time, however, it will be about Rachel.

Throughout the entirety of this movie, one thing that really stood out to me was how incredibly the actors portrayed their characters. The three main characters of Greg, Earl, and Rachel all perfectly encompass the conflict of the movie between the tragic aspect and the comedic aspect. Usually, in a movie such as this, the tone would be solely focused on the tragic aspect. Rachel has cancer, and considering how serious cancer is and even how it is treated in this movie, the tone should shift more towards the sadder side of it. However, even after the cancer is introduced into the story, all the actors manage to balance the happiness that they all give each other and the sadness within themselves. Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke manage to show the viewer human beings who are struggling and still continuing to fight on with each other. Humans are complicated, and they show just how complicated they are.

As I watched the movie come to an end and saw the two in the hospital bed together watching the movie Greg finally made for Rachel, I got misty-eyed. I saw the comedy and tragedy come to a head, where the joy they both brought to each other was colliding with the end Rachel was facing. They saw the good they had both brought into each other’s lives, and it was impactful to say the least. Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke did an excellent job portraying the complicated aspect of the human persona, and this movie is an excellent piece of film because of it. Overall, I give this film a 4.8/5 for the acting as well as all the other factors that played a role in this movie’s success. Now streaming on Hulu.