Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won over most critics with its inventive, self-aware take on the coming-of-age formula, earning particular praise for its script and performances. The sharpest irony in its reception, though, is the gap between critical enthusiasm and audience reality: the film that Variety predicted would be 'a touchstone for its generation' quietly fizzled at the box office, suggesting critics and mainstream viewers were not quite watching the same movie.