Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The Sundance Film Festival is a respected institution, a vital showcase and support system for independent cinema that has been operating for nearly four decades. However, a certain type of incredibly annoying American independent film has become synonymous with the festival over the years, to the point that the term “Sundance movie” is almost always used in a pejorative manner. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's oxygen-deprived Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and while it's relatively weightless and apolitical, the double win was inevitable. This is just about the Sundance-iest Sundance movie that Sundance ever Sundanced, so aggressively quirky and needy and contrived that it makes The Spitfire Grill look like A Woman Under the Influence. Every line, gesture, story beat and camera move comes complete with post-ironic air quotes. It's like Juno on crystal meth. D.B.