High school student Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
Somewhere along the way Earl eases up on the suburban-Wes Anderson whimsy and starts to find its heart, infusing the story's self-conscious cleverness and trick-shot set pieces with something sweeter, sadder, and even a little bit profound.
I found myself relishing the skill of the cast and laughing at the sharply turned dialogue while wincing at the self-consciousness of the storytelling and the self-congratulatory pop-culture references.
This delicate movie elevates itself from the usual run-of-the-mill schooldays saga with a script that is one part funny, one part tragic and all parts thoroughly human.
The filmmaking from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is hyper-stylized and a bit wonky at times, with a few odd security camera angles thrown into the mix. But it's also energetic and mostly fun to watch, especially the glimpses of their "awful" movies.
There's plenty to like here, but the movie focuses on the least interesting person on the screen, a curious choice considering we're talking life and death.