Me & Earl & the Dying Girl
Crit
The latest entry in the thriving subgenre of films about teens with terminal diseases based on YA novels that, notwithstanding the clichéd easy tearjerk subject matter, are intelligent and genuine and genuinely moving is all that, but it hadn't occurred to me going in that another thriving subgenre was in play: the film set in a city that is treated with love and insight . . . and is Pittsburgh!
In 1993 it was surprising just to see an aerial shot of the Confluence in Groundhog Day; seven years later the Iron City was a character in Wonder Boys (based on a novel by Pittsburgher Michael Chabon). In the past half-dozen or so years, we've had Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Adventureland, Love and Other Drugs, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Fault in Our Stars (a member of the other subgenre here, of course), and those are just the ones I've seen (and doesn't count the ones where the city stands in for another city presumably more expensive to film in). It's fair to say that Pittsburgh has pushed into the top 5 U.S. cities most loved by the movies; New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles will probably always top the list, but Pittsburgh may be jostling with Chicago for 4th.
And I'm in favor: I have long had a soft spot in my heart for Pittsburgh, where I first heard Elvis Costello live, first caught a baseball at a big league game, first went deep in debt to buy my first decent sound system. And a good friend is a proud Pittsburgher, which provides a booster shot for my boosterism.
Trailers
- He Named Me Malala--Documentary about you know who. Looks unmissable.
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