DVD REVIEWS
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
(out of 4) Comedy? Drama? Satire? Tragedy?
All four snap, crackle, pop and simmer in this Sundance 2015 sensation, a quirky film that confuses even the people in it.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” admits our wobbly narrator, the “me” of the title: Greg ( Project X’s Thomas Mann), a “terminally awkward” high school senior who lives in an affluent part of Pittsburgh.
The logline suggests a facsimile of The Fault in our Stars, but thankfully the only cloning sanctioned by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and screenwriter Jesse Andrews (adapting his own novel) is the bizarro movie parodies made by Greg and his pal Earl (RJ Cyler).
But what about the dying girl? She’s Rachel (played by Olivia Cooke), who has leukemia. Greg’s mom (Connie Britton) orders him to be friends with her, even though he hasn’t spoken to Rachel for years.
We’re drawn into the lives of Greg, Earl and Rachel because the actors and the filmmaker and writer make us care about them. The movie earns both its laughter and tears.
Extras include deleted scenes with optional commentary and makingof featurettes. Peter Howell
MAGIC MIKE XXL
(out of 4) All wrong, all wrong, all wrong.
Matthew McConaughey is sorely missed in this underendowed sequel, which tries to go big but should instead have gone home. Everybody knows it, because his character Dallas is often invoked, like a ghost at a séance.
Slyly sexy cowboy Dallas was the real tease amongst the male strippers (sorry, entertainers) of Steven Soderbergh’s 2012 original, a funny and poignant look at the job of selling swagger. Channing Tatum’s title character “Magic” Mike Martingano was based on Tatum’s pre-stardom dance career.
Absent the brio of Dallas and also the mojo of Mike’s designer ambitions (he finally got that furniture business going), Magic Mike XXL instead dives into the hoariest of clichés: the proverbial “one last ride” by guys who have nothing left to lose, but also nothing to say or prove.
If the suggestive use of spray cream whips you into a froth, boy, do these lads have a movie for you.
Extras include an extended dance scene and making-of featurette.