I’m sorry, but I just do not get the critically acclaimed bag of cloying teenage angst that is Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. I know it won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, and I know it had a 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes when I wrote this review, which is quite good. But tell me, what is so great about a film that is, in essence, The Fault in Our Stars without the romance, subbing in  Pittsburgh for Amsterdam?

Not that there’s anything wrong with Pittsburgh. The film actually makes the much maligned American city look lovely. It’s just that we’ve seen it all before, and all too recently. Do we really need another touchy teens dealing with cancer movie? This one stars Thomas Mann as Greg, an unlikeable and self-obsessed high school senior who has to be forced by his mother to spend time with Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a girl in his class who has been diagnosed with stage four cancer. The fact that his mother, played by a wasted Connie Britton, has to  go to extreme measures to get him to do this simple mitzvah, and that he all too soon reveals to Rachel that that’s why he’s visiting her, tells you a little something about this kid.

His buddy Earl (adroit newcomer R.J. Cyler), a street smart African American classmate, is far more likable, and presumably there to lighten up this sodden sack of self-absorption.  Greg and Earl band together to make clever film parodies, and therein lies the “unique” conceit of the film. It’s liberally peppered with clips from their mini movies that heavy handedly show all the boys seem to be learning along the way. And while their home movies do add some much needed humor and emotional relief, it’s hard to cheer for Greg, who repeatedly finds it impossible to get out of his own way.

Some are saying that director Alonso Gomez-Rejon, best known for directing TV series like American Horror Story, Glee, The Carrie Diaries and Red Band Society, shows promise of being the John Hughes of this century. All I can say is, “I hope not.”

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 44 Minutes

Official Site: MeAndEarlMovie.com

Get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL Review: Angsters Aweigh!