Paul Schrader writes on Facebook:

This film represents I think a new stage in film stylization. The directors of the post war era, the Golden Age, perfected the classic Hollywood storytelling style which evolved in the 20’s and 30’s. This style was based on rules which promoted seamless nearly anonymous storytelling. The next generation, the film school generation, my generation, knew and respected the rules but set out to break the rules for clear intended purposes. The better you knew the rules the better you could break them. Me and Earl is another stage, the digital filmmaking phase. This assumes that there were never any filmmaking rules and therefore there are none to break. This generation knows of the old rules of course but does not believe in them like their predecessors did. They are not breaking rules. There are no rules to break. Everything is allowed, short framing, wide angle pans, opposed eyelines–these are just possibilities, neither right nor wrong, neither rule or broken rule. This is the impact of low cost digital photography where all is possible, inexpensive and equally valid. I like it.