Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Starring: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke
Showing: At selected cinemas
Rating: ★★★★

By EMILY BAXTER

Watching Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was both the best of times and the worst of times. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon in only his second feature film, this coming of age comedy will have you in fits of laughter and wiping away tears of sadness too.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl premiered at the 31^st Sundance Film Festival in January this year, where it took out the audience award for best US drama. It also won the Grand Jury Prize, cementing its place as one of the films to see this year. Its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) saw its popularity continue, with all its sessions selling out quickly.

Based on Jesse Andrews’ book of the same title, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl follows Greg (Thomas Mann), a senior at high school who has perfected the art of befriending everyone, without actually calling them his friends. Earl (Ronald Cyler II) is Greg’s “co-worker” and the closest thing he has to a friend.

And the dying girl? Her name is Rachel (Olivia Cooke), and she’s Greg’s classmate who has been recently diagnosed with cancer. After Greg is forced by his mother (Connie Britton) to hang out with Rachel, they bond over the movies Greg and Earl have made together since childhood. As Rachel undergoes treatment, Greg and Earl begin to make their latest video – one that is for Rachel herself.

Slightly random and quirky animations are interspersed throughout the film whenever popular girl Madison (Katherine C. Hughes) approaches Greg.

The animations match the cinematography. The camera is nearly always moving, with Gomez-Rejon, who’s worked beneath Martin Scorsese and Nora Ephron, using unusual camera angles (think upside-down, spinning around, birds-eye-view cameras).

While these could have become a distraction from the developing relationships on screen, the camera angles are a good addition – the audience can’t help but feel they’re seeing something similar to Greg’s own amateur filmmaking skills. The soundtrack (by Brian Eno and Nico Muhly) didn't overwhelm either, complementing at all times the mood of the movie.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is more than just another addition to the recent spate of teenage cancer films. It’s a humorous and heart-warming take on growing up and confronting some of life’s hardest moments, with a few life lessons for young and old thrown in too.

Good things await

Director: Phie Ambo
Starring: Niel Stokholm, Rita Stokholm
Rating: ★★★★
Showing: Kino Cinemas, Environmental Film Festival Australia, September 5

By HOLLY PHILLIPS 

The slurp of a wrinkly cow’s tongue wrapping across your cheek is an embracing feeling, but organic farmer Niel Stokholm is not like everyone else. Danish filmmaker Phie Ambo’s documentary Good Things Await is a harmonious tale about man, animal and land.

Good Things Await is a picturesque ode to 80-year-old Niel, his wife Rita and their family, and their ambition to run a sustainable, biodynamic cattle farm called Thorshojgaard. Their farm, situated in seaside town Dronningmølle in eastern Denmark, produces some of the most sought-after produce in Denmark, and is sourced by prestigious Danish restaurants including NOMA and Restaurant Julian.

Phie Ambo is a master of the documentary art. She won the Robert Award for Best Documentary Feature for her 2002 documentary Family, and more recently the Robert Award for Best Documentary Short for 2013 film Kongens Foged.

Ambo’s film comes at a time when the number of biodynamic farms in Denmark dwindles. The piece confirms its place in film history as it offers a snapshot of one of the last such farms to exist.

The dialogue in Good Things Await is intimate and revealing as the audience is invited to observe the relationship between Niel and his wife. At first the language barrier is a shock, but Ambo authentically captures the heartbreak the Stokholms face at the daunting threat of enforced closure by Danish welfare authorities.

A rare, close up shot of the couple embracing in the closing sequence flawlessly captures the relief of hearing that the farm can continue to operate.

Short, unexplained vignettes burst throughout the narrative of Good Things Await, with Niel and Rita hand-spooning manure into cattle horns over a series of months. These sequences seemed misplaced at first but they break up the story by offering audiences an insight into the day-to-day biodynamic practices.

Accompanying the visual is the sound track, composed by Golden Globe winner Jóhann Jóhannsson and sung by artist and director Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices. 

Niel's age is no shackle on his dreams as he ploughs on, promising to make it to 100. Despite Thorshojgaard’s beauty, long, cascading images of rolling hills wear thin towards the end. The film is too long, and fewer panning landscape shots might have helped.

But as Niel suggests, it’s best not to say a bad word in front of the cattle – they might get offended!