David Gordon Green, who in 2000 made a splash on the festival circuit with his independent debut feature, George Washington, directed this drama about two people entering into a mature romantic relationship -- the sort that neither has been accustomed to. Paul (Paul Schneider) is a guy in his mid-'20s who lives in a small Southern town, where he earn a living fixing cars for his uncle. A man with little in the way of ambition, Paul still lives with his mother, Elvira (Patricia Clarkson), and
still hangs out with his best friend from high school, rowdy Tip (Shea Whigham), and their buddies Bo (Maurice Compte) and Bust-Ass (Danny McBride). Among his friends, Paul has a reputation as a ladies' man, but he's not at all good with long-term relationships; most of Paul's romances last only a few weeks, and he's slept with nearly every girl in town who's worth having. Deep down inside, Paul senses that he would like to lead a different life, and that feeling becomes all the more clear when he meets Noel (Zooey Deschanel), Tip's teenage sister who has come back home after attending a boarding school. Noel is smarter and deeper than the girls Paul is used to, while Noel is taken with his charm, wit, and down-to-earth nature. Paul and Noel soon fall in love, but for Paul this is a different sort of relationship than he's accustomed to -- Noel is still a virgin, and her contemplative nature gives him a desire to be a better, stronger person. However, Tip doesn't approve of Paul dating his younger sister, which leads to a rift between these longtime friends. All the Real Girls was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival; Patricia Clarkson's performance was also cited by the jury. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The characters just sit there and talk, and you start to feel you're trapped not at a movie but in a tiny diner somewhere, eavesdropping on a lot of uninteresting conversations.
A love story for those who cannot tolerate the phoniness of Hollywood romance movies, one that deftly avoids melodrama and manipulation in favor of raw emotion.
It's about people who have no idea what to say, how to say it, what it means, where it leads: They just blunder through, clumsy and hopeful and tongue-tied and so human it breaks your heart.
All Gordon Green can manage are...dreamy images, blunt-edged characters and dialogue, splattered like so-much Cheese Whiz over a shapeless mess of a pseudo-poetic narrative.
Love can be a good thing. It can just as easily be horrible. David Gordon Green's poetic All the Real Girls captures both senses of love - and beautifully to boot.
There are several moments so sublime, so ineffably and serenely beautiful, that you might be convinced that this sort of relationship could only happen in a dream.
What the hell David Gordon Green? You make the highness and the sitter instead of making more films like this?? This is actually a raw powerhouse film that shows how amazing zooey descahnel and Paul schnieder are. The story is simplistic but the acting and the direction of the film are what makes a contemporary
classic. Huge fan of this film!
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