"We're not even friends." Greg (Mann) is finally a senior. He as survived high school by trying to be invisible to everyone and not causing any drama. When his mother tells him that a classmate (Cooke) has been diagnosed with cancer and that he should hang out with her he hesitates. What starts off as something he is forced to do actually helps him to become who he truly is. If you have teenagers this is a movie they should watch. The movie is a mix of Fault in our Stars and Perks of Being a Wallflower. There is humor and drama in this but the best part about it is that it feels real and nothing about it is forced. The movie could have easily been cheesy and almost after-school-special-like but it stays away from that and becomes something that is truly special. It isn't anything all that original but the writing and acting really make this one of the better movies of this genre and I recommend it. Overall, a movie that could have been very hokey but instead turned out to be very real and heartfelt. A movie teens should watch. If you liked Fault in our Stars you will love this movie. I give it a high B+.

Greg (Thomas Mann) tries to connect with every group in his high school but not actually getting involved. He and his best friend "co-worker" Earl (RJ Cyler) makes bad recreations of classic films and eat lunch in the office of their favorite teacher Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal). Greg's parents (Nick Offerman, Connie Britton) force him to befriend their friend Denise (Molly Shannon)'s daughter Rachel (Olivia Cooke) who is dying of leukemia.

This is a deliberately low-key quirky teen melodrama. At times, I wish this could be more quote unquote real. I still love the nice lead characters despite Greg's self-pitying narcissism. For a movie with a dying girl, the stakes are never really too high. Olivia Cooke is so adorably cute that she never really achieves sickly. Greg is always claiming this is not the normal teen melodrama which does make it too self-aware. The same goes for his claim that nobody dies. It's a bit too written. It's a bit too manufactured. One can see the typing on the keyboard on the screen or the print on the page. It's still a nice lovely quirky coming-of-age movie.

On a minor note, I would make Rachel's movie about something. Maybe I would have a video of the cafeteria to see the students come and go. It would be difficult to make any dialog in the video compelling enough. It has to be silent considering the way the scene plays out. I don't think that stop motion is special or fitting enough.

I saw this film on a four hour flight. I had it on my list of films to see, but I never got around to seeing it. What we have here is a classically gifted child who tries to hide in the bushes. His friend is a down-to-earth black kid who comes from humble roots. His contributions are more basic. He has a seemingly dangerous brother. The star is a filmmaker, taking classics like "Apocalypse Now" and "Breathless" and turning them into truncated parodies. The titles are probably better than the movies. One day, his somewhat overbearing mother, lets him know that a classmate of his, a young woman, has leukemia, and that it would be nice to for him to visit her. He reluctantly goes to see her, and it is only his explanation that his mother will make it hell for him if he doesn't spend time with her. What develops is a fascinating connection between the two and love at arm's length. Earl is only a part time player and not a great factor, other than being a refreshing distraction. What makes this movie so wonderful is the natural development of love and friendship, the realities of the illness, and a slow revealing of truths between the two characters. The movie is funny at times and never maudlin, although it has its dark moments as well. I'd not heard of the kids playing the roles, but they are strikingly poignant in their delivery. Nick Offerman, who is only in a couple scenes, plays the father of the boy. He steals every scene he is in. He is an experimenter with life where the young man experiments with film. See this.