All the Real Girls

• 
  
  November 7, 2009

  EarthlyAlien

  "Do you wanna know a secret that I didn't tell anybody ever?... You know how ducks fly home in a V? It's like a v-shape when they get home? I was walking my dog and I looked up and there's this big V above me, there's all these ducks flying back to their home. And right when t...( read more)hey flew above me, I saw 'em and, they crashed into a big house! The whole V! And then, they hit the ground, and they just kinda curled up. You ever fucking see that? Have you ever seen a mistake in nature? Have you ever seen an animal make a mistake?"
  
  
  
  David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls (the follow-up to his astonishing 2000 debut George Washington) exhibits the same gently lackadaisical rhythm and acute perception of human joy and misery that made his debut such a success, even as it charts new territory. A dreamy tale of the wondrous elation and sometimes terrible sorrow that accompanies love, the Sundance hit - about the budding relationship between an immature womanizer and the sister of his best friend - occasionally threatens to devolve into laughable sentimentality. But Green's assured direction and two outstanding lead performances never allow this minor masterpiece to lose its course, and the results are a sumptuous romance that pulsates with the passionate ecstasy of the smitten heart.
  
  Paul (co-writer Paul Schneider) is a standard guy working for his uncle and living with his mother in the same house he's always called home, and his abundant sexual conquests have earned him a well-deserved reputation as a licentious heartbreaker. He spends his free time with a group of lifelong buddies, drinking and looking for his next female conquest. As one former girlfriend wisely observes, Paul's the type of sleazy good-for-nothing who'll never amount to more than what he is now: a drunken, childish fool with no ambition. His mother puts it more bluntly: Paul is "not educated, honest, or strong."
  
  But beneath that callous exterior lies a surprisingly tender soul, and Paul's world changes with the reappearance of his friend Tip's sibling, a wide-eyed ingénue named Noel (the enchanting Zooey Deschanel) who's been cooped up in an all-girl boarding school since the age of 12. Despite the objections of Tip (Shea Whigham) - who's familiar with both his sister's innocence and his pal's history of thoughtless carousing - Paul and Noel are magnetically drawn to one another, and it's not long before their casual conversations evolve into heartfelt glances, stolen kisses, and innocent nights spent under the covers. The outside world gives way as the two - concealed in a timeless small-town paradise of towering ferns, beaten down dirt roads, and quiet, still air - develop a blissful companionship, convinced that their feelings for each other are unique in the annals of history. Tim Orr's stunningly delicate, golden-hued cinematography seems to envelop the young lovers in a warm blanket of sunshine, protecting them as they float through life in a state of idyllic rapture.
  
  As both a director and a writer, Green is uninterested in disingenuous clichés and poses, and his rejection of the genre's most hackneyed conventions comes in the form of unabashed sincerity. In his film's corny, love-struck dialogue - spoken with the gravity that comes from people wholly enraptured by their new-found emotions - Green captures the raw immediacy of Paul and Noel's exhilarating affair. The film stares directly into the face of melodramatic mawkishness, and doesn't blink; All the Real Girls transcends the corniness of its dialogue through the earnestness of Green's conviction. At one point, Noel gingerly tells Paul "I like it when you smile at me," and her words have the vulnerable honesty and the lyrical grace of a poem.
  
  Their daydreaming, however, cannot last forever, and a disastrous decision leaves the young couple at a crossroads. Green, having immersed us in the intense atmosphere of blossoming passion, doesn't shy away from the painful consequences that caring for someone frequently entails, and he makes it clear that Paul and Noel's despair doesn't exist in a vacuum. The film reveals a town littered with the walking wounded: Paul's uncle Leland (Benjamin Mouton), still reeling from the death of his wife, has vowed to never get that close to someone again; his single mother Elvira (Patricia Clarkson), entertains hospitalized children dressed as a clown in order to alleviate her loneliness; and Tip learns a hard lesson about the ramifications of his reckless behaviour.
  
  Green is often compared to legendary recluse Terrence Malick, and his fascination with images of nature - a river glistening in the sunlight, a crippled dog hobbling along a dusty road - imbues the seemingly ordinary with a mythical import that recalls Malick's ethereal work from the 70s. Yet unlike his kindred directorial spirit, Green is keenly attuned to his actors' strengths and weaknesses and, in Schneider and Deschanel, he has found a pair of brave performers willing to embrace material hovering on the edge of preciousness.
  
  Schneider and Deschanel share an unaffected, easygoing chemistry that only grows more spellbinding as Paul and Noel's relationship begins to crumble under the weight of mistakes and regrets both past and present. Throughout, Green shelters their performances with steadfast grace and respect. In doing so, he has crafted a timeless portrait of two individuals' awkward, euphoric first encounter with love. And it feels as real as anything I've ever seen.
  
  "I'm looking at you right now and I hear you talking and all the words that are coming out of your mouth are like they're coming out of a stranger. Why don't you put your fucking hair back on and come back, just come on back?"

  Share This Review
• 
  
  June 29, 2009

  DrZeek

  Paul: I just want to make sure that a million years from now I can still see you up close and we'll still have amazing things to say.
  
  A well made drama about two people that fall in love, however its not that simple. The performances are solid, the dialog propels it further, an...( read more)d the subtle approach steers the film away from being melodramatic. Its slow paced but well told.
  
  Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel star as Paul and Noel. Paul is a man who's been womanizing since his early teens and Noel is his best friend's sister, recently back from boarding school. The inevitable turn involving the best friend finding out is part of the plot, but another turn is what truly turns this film around.
  
  Director David Gordan Green has a naturalistic style that provides this movie with the right mood and sense of thought. Nothing is ever over emphasized in this movie, I found it very real and easy to relate with for various reasons.
  
  The supporting character also add to the film, including Patricia Clarkson as Paul's mother. Its the extra padding of these characters that certainly keeps the film interesting.
  
  Even though I've been vague on where the plot goes, this is a good story, maybe not appealing to all, but well acted and made.
  
  Paul: Do you wanna know a secret that I didn't tell anybody ever?... You know how ducks fly home in a V? It's like a v-shape when they get home? I was walking my dog and I looked up and there's this big V above me, there's all these ducks flying back to their home. And right when they flew above me, I saw 'em and, they crashed into a big house! The whole V! And then, they hit the ground, and they just kinda curled up. You ever fucking see that? Have you ever seen a mistake in nature? Have you ever seen an animal make a mistake?

  Share This Review
• 
  
  June 15, 2009

  IfeellikeGregorSamsa

  Note: David Gordon Green wants to transcend cinematic language onto higher level, trying to convinces us that what's acted is real and what's directed is as if it happend without it, mostly through naturalistic dialogue full of pauses and stutters. Sometimes it works, but only if...( read more) one does it well. "All the Real Girls" couldn't work since it didn't have what was necessary in the first place: a story. Not to mention, a structure. It started and then... it ended. Yes, sometimes life can also be like that...
  
  ...but don't we go to the movies to see a life and a dream combined into one?

  Share This Review
• 
  
  March 19, 2009

  MovieGeek13

  Captures young romance in an honest and surreal way that few films are able to.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  February 15, 2009

  her69eyes

  "All the Real Girls" is heralded as a low-key gem as it's one of the only recent movies about young love that gets it right. It's idealized in the happy moments, yes, like real love - however, the glamorous facade is never far from slipping to reveal the underlying problems. It's...( read more) amazing that David Gordon Green, 27 at the time this was released, is capable of reflecting on emotions that so many other successful writers and directors continuously fail to conquer. While the movie has it's faults (quite a few of them, in fact), "All the Real Girls" is still a very truthful and meditative look at what it's like to be in love.
  
  The central character is Paul (Paul Schneider), an attractive and endlessly charming guy who can get just about any girl to sleep with him. He's been with dozens of girls in town, and has earned himself quite the reputation. Therefore, it's not too surprising that his friend, Tip (Shea Wingham), is not all too happy to hear that he's interested in his sister who just returned from boarding school, Noel (Zooey Deschanel). While Paul has been with many women, this is the first one that he doesn't consciously want to mess up. He hesitates from kissing her to cause problems with Tip, and he tells her that he doesn't want to run out of interesting things to talk about a thousand years from now. It reads like sappy melodramatic love, however it's actually much more clever on screen.
  
  Paul's mom is Elvira (Patricia Clarkson), and she makes a living by working in the children's wards of hospitals as a clown. She and Paul occasionally go together, so we get several scenes of the overstated and unnecessary "happy on the outside, sad on the inside" idea. Patricia Clarkson is a wonderful actress and she's good here, but I think the relationship between Paul and his mother is the weak point in the film.
  
  There's an enjoyable performance by Danny McBride, who plays a friend of Paul and Tip. Lately, Danny's appeared in films like "Tropic Thunder" and "Pineapple Express", and here he plays the same clueless goofball but in a way where he actually seems like he could exist. As entertaining as he was, however, I don't like where his character goes near the end. As a matter of fact, I found the whole third act of the film to be fairly flat and unsatisfying.
  
  The film largely works on the performances, especially Zooey Deschanel. Zooey has worked in countless high profile films over the past few years in supporting roles, and here her full talents are on display. At times we love her, and at times we hate her - but never once do we think her actions are fabricated. Her gorgeous, truthful eyes are an asset to any film. Paul Schneider is mostly good as well, however I never quite bought that he would be a sleazebag who sleeps with a lot of girls around town.
  
  I was slightly disappointed with "All the Real Girls", but it's still endlessly charming and very smart. I'd give it a mild recommendation.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 22, 2009

  filmguy450

  One of the best, most understated romance dramas I have ever seen. The cast is superb (it also has a young Danny McBride, wtf?). The movie takes it's time to allow the us to know the characters, and understand why do what they do. The script avoids cliches and there isn't a false...( read more) note in the story. My favorite thing about the movie is the ending; sure it is not happy, but very realistic.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  November 15, 2009

  iamuncool

  I loved this film! It had a lot of heart. Amazing screenplay. Really good performances especially from Paul Schneider. I'm definitely gonna watch the rest of DGG's films.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  October 20, 2009

  magnolia12883

  Writer-director David Gordon Green's second feaure film is another poetic, lovely, thoughtful take on small-town North Carolina life to rival his terrific debut, "George Washington" (2000). Paul Schneider (who co-conceived the story with Green) plays Paul, a lothario who sleeps w...( read more)ith all the girls in town and then dumps them quickly and not particularly tactfully ("I think I hate you too"). He hangs out with friends Tip and Bust-Ass (Danny McBride), and occasionally helps his mom (Patricia Clarkson) as a clown for hire at the local children's hospital. When his best friend's sister (the lovely Zooey Deschanel) comes back to town from boarding school, Paul is faced with his first real prospect for love. But will she just be another conquest, or will they succeed where previous relationships have failed? Green has a great eye for visual splendor, and an equal ear for dialogue which sounds plausible in a sort of heightened reality; these people talk not like you or me, but how we might wish we could talk. Deschanel is luminescent and fragile as a sweet young girl for whom Paul his her first lover, and for whom the ultimate dream is to find someone nice, trust-worthy and decent. Paul tries to fit the bill, but nobody's perfect. The film is a bittersweet tone poem for North Carolina, for young love, and for the heartbreak that often ensues. An absolute gem.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  August 28, 2009

  jam233

  Good film, very nice performances, especially Patricia Clarkston, as always. Wonderful cinematography. Fine writing. Some very memorable scenes. But, it can be a bit tedious.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  August 9, 2009

  ember6

  What love stories should be: true.

  Share This Review

• 
  July 9, 2008

  WrellikW

  I loved the bowling alley dance and the car race, those were just weird and funny. Other than that, the film was just 'blah'. I kept watching it and hoping something would happen, but it never did. It had the hopes of being better and it sure had the cast to do so, but..... Oh well.
  
  Take care,
  William
  Zzzzzoooooommmmmm!
  
  "It is easy to be brave, from a distance". American Indian Proverb.

• Bartow Church
• Benjamin Mouton
• Danny McBride
• Danny R. McBride
• Heather McComb
• Maurice Compte
• Maya Ling Pruitt
• Patricia Clarkson
• Patty Clarkson

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

• 
  Quinceañera (Echo Park, L.A.) (67%)
• 
  Grind (50%)
• 
  Midlothia (100%)
• 
  Diggers (100%)

• All the girls acting as participants in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant , Except Abigail Breslin ,were veterans of real beauty pageants. They wore the same costumes ,including hair and make up and performed the same talent routines as they had in real life ?  Answer »
• All of the girls acting as participants in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), with the exception of Abigail Breslin, were veterans of real beauty pageants.  Answer »
• I've been in: Elf, Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, Bridge to Terabithia and All the Real Girls....  Answer »
• Which pair was in both "All the Real Girls" and "Lars and the Real Girl?"  Answer »

No quizzes for All the Real Girls. Want to create one?

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

• mehehehehi...
• snot008
• eloylugo
• bucusuz
• fuckuserna...
• dignanandmax
• clau0dia
• leaflibrary

No recent headlines. Got one?

• 

  Best of the 00's (work in progress)

  by deadmansshoes
  33 Movies
• 

  Past, Present, & Future

  by LYNNWOODS04
  510 Movies
• 

  to see by me

  by gipilix
  14 Movies
• 

  o'seven

  by leaflibrary
  29 Movies
• 

  Films of David Gordon Green

  by DonMichael
  6 Movies

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?