50/50

“I got to tell you, I was really nervous about this whole cancer thing, and then I met you guys, and boy do I feel better.” Jesus christ man. It’s so rare for a film to perfectly balance the highest highs of comedy and the deepest depths of emotion. The pacing and editing has been done to absolute perfection to ensure that the juxtaposition between each scene feels purposeful and raw rather than the typical overbloating that films with such emotional extremes often fall victim to. This is done just so fucking perfectly its beautiful. I go from laughing my ass off from a brilliantly written Seth Rogen one liner, to balling my eyes out. The comedic aspect is so fucking fantastic, and as I mentioned, I really was laughing out loud for entire scenes. The script is so perfectly witty and layered, and full with smart and actually hilarious one liners. Joseph Gordan-Levitt’s deadpan comedy bounces perfectly off of Seth Rogen's classic dude routine. The comedy is built up so brilliantly, and their relationship really makes the absurdly emotional second half of the film feel like a tidal wave. Even though I obviously haven’t experienced this, it felt so relatable, and I found myself overwhelmed with the idea of finding out my best bud has cancer. Such a fantastic depiction of the reality that those living with cancer face. Its so easy to fall into the trap of just making some schmaltz extravaganza cry-porn character study of a person with cancer, but this film instead genuinely shows the humanity of living with such a terrible disease. The relationships that get destroyed, built and explored along the way and the changes in a persons life that come as a result of having cancer. I love how this film has perfectly display how cancer can affect these relationships, without making it feel overly preachy or make it feel like the characters are being selfish.  On a technical aspect, the film is shot brilliantly, edited so precisely, the acting is absolutely superb and oscar worthy, and I wanted to restrain from mentioning this until the end but RADIOHEAD PEAKKKK AT THE START. HIGH AND DRY. THE BENDS, PEAK. This is an absolutely fucking tremendous film and I highly recommend this! Tremendous!!