This film was beautiful, it created sublime, believable characters and by the end (well middle) of it I was in tears.
It is perfectly written by Jesse Andrews and it deals with such emotional, scary and intense issues yet it never fails to inject appropriate amounts of humour afterwards to soften the blow. The casting is sublime Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and Ronald Cyler II are sublime – they play the drama as well as they play the comedy and the rapport between them demonstrates what talented actors they are.
Most of the time I hate voice over monologues, but this one has a very clear point and while at first I found it a little distracting I quickly became accustom to it and realised its significance as they film came to a close. The monologues were also often used to diffuse intense situations, which was of great help as I ran out of tissues.
The music, direction and cinematography were all outstanding and I know that in such a serious film comedy should seem inappropriate, but I assure you that this creative team knows what they are doing and the comedy adds another dimension of realism to the story.
I cannot sing high enough praises of this film and I know that me loving it this much should make you want to go see it (and really that’s the point of a film critic), but it is tough to watch. It hurts and if you go see this I urge you to be emotionally prepared for the roller-coaster that follows.
Overall it is sublime, fantastic and amazing all at the same time, but it is also one of the saddest, most touching and emotional films you will ever see.
5 Stars
Review by Benjamin Maio Mackay
Screening courtesy of 20th Century Fox
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