‘Me & Earl’ and the ‘Dying Girl’ is something truly special

New releases

Me & Earl and the Dying Girl (PG-13)

Starring Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, R. J. Cyler

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

A Pittsburgh teen and wannabe filmmaker is saddled with the thankless summer task of “visiting with” a neighbor girl who has cancer. The boy would rather be making 2-minute sock-puppet parodies of famous films with his best friend, and the girl would rather be anywhere but where she is. This is a boy-meets-girl-meets-his-camera type of movie that blissfully breaks all the Hollywood stereotypes and creates a freshness that captured Sundance’s biggest awards. You’ve got to see it. (By the way, the narrator is quick to tell us that despite the title, this film has a “completely happy ending”).

4 pieces of Indy film at its best toast.

A Little Chaos (R)

Starring Kate Winslet, Matthais Schoneaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci. Jennifer Ehle

Directed by Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman wisely casts himself as France’s King Louis XIV opposite Stanley Tucci as the Duke d’Orleans, the king’s outspoken brother. Their scenes together sparkle with sibling rivalry and one-up-man-ship as a “mere Duke” matches wits against the “Sun King” over the future of France’s crowning glory-the gardens of Versailles. The female landscape architect chosen to “tame” the swampy morass, finds the existing gardens too orderly and lacking in the “abundance of chaos” she proposes. Drama, humor, and star-crossed lovers populate this costume drama in the era of a king who stayed on the throne longer than any other European Royal. Louis was truly one-of-a-kind, a “glorious King” who loved flattery, and who applied his personal stamp to French politics, war, commerce, finance, religion, fashion, architecture, art and even ballet (he adored ballet, dancing in over 80 different roles in 40 ballets).

3 pieces of really quite fascinating historical toast.

Ted (R)

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Morgan Freeman, Michael Dorn, Patrick Warburton

Directed by Seth MacFarlane

Apparently someone finds the idea of a foul-mouthed, just-married teddy bear “making a baby” with his attractive human bride a funny idea for a movie. The same folk think that having the bear go to court to establish that a stuffed bear has the legal right to marry and have children is even funnier. The potential for a barbed satire about marriage laws and determining the legal rights of sentient beings (i.e. chimpanzees and dolphins) is completely overlooked, and instead we have a two hour comedy based upon a single, unfunny joke. Even an onscreen trip to ComicCon can’t save this bomb.

1 piece of Ted’s back and even more unfunny toast.

(Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast mini-reviews appear in the Argus-Courier every week. E-mail comments to gilmansergh@comcast.net.)