All the Real Girls (2003)

I love this movie so much

As Good As It Gets

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All the Real Girls (2003): Dir: David Gordon Green / Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson, Danny McBride, Shea Whigham: Disappointing film about the quest for meaningful relationships. Paul Schneider lives with his mother and works for his uncle until Zooey Deschanel returns to town thus opening his first real relationship. Decent setup follows endless unnecessary scenes where characters become temporary focus that turn up when convenient. Audience groaned as Schneider stands waist deep in water talking to a dog in conclusion. He plays a guy struggling with the reality of relationships, and Deschanel tries to communicate her feelings. Both are capable actors subdued in weak writing. Patricia Clarkson is wasted as his mother who entertains patients as a clown. Considering the film she is in being a clown might not be such a bad idea. Danny McBride might have played better in another film. For all the positive vibes this film has received, it comes off as a shitty amateur film that looks more like a home movie than a creative independent film. David Gordon Green overuses fade shots as if every scene needed dramatic payoff. He also shoots useless footage of people and objects. Drab photography that further deadens the film. It contains a theme about relationships but the execution is so boring that it will likely put all the real girls and their real men to sleep. Score: 2 / 10

I saw this film when it was released in Asheville NC.Asheville, of course is the hometown of Paul Schneider, who plays the lead and co-wrote the screenplay. Asheville is also listed as the filming location, though that's not entirely true. The majority of the outdoor scenes were filmed in the small town of Marshall, which is about 30 minutes outside Asheville.As a resident of the area, I was certainly pulling for the film, as were many others. Asheville is an unusually sophisticated town when it comes to the arts. For instance, with a population of just under 70,000, it has a symphony, an opera company, and even a professional (equity) theater company. The little town is bursting at the seams with extremely talented creative people so I had every reason to expect great things from this film. Unfortunately, I could not have been more disappointed.If you approach this film assuming that it is an independent work of genius, (as some here have described it) It's possible that when you arrive at the end of the film you could continue to believe that, since the power of artistic suggestion can be strong. However, if you take it at face value, chances are you'll arrive at the end of the film wondering how the film has gotten as far as it has. There is certainly nothing "real" about the characters or the relationships. Spend some time here in Appalachia. You don't have to have been born here to figure out that the people portrayed in this film don't exist. I don't need a film to have a clearly discernible plot, and I'm quite happy for it to move slowly, but this film doesn't really have anything to offer. Story? There isn't one that is compelling or believable. Characters? Zooey Deschanel (who has become a truly great actress) is far more interesting in interviews ABOUT the film than her character is IN it, and she's the only character I could muster any interest in.Honestly, the film comes off as the kind of thing a group of not particularly gifted high school kids might come up with given the time and help of a good cinematographer. I'm truly baffled at the positive reviews. Consider the overall score and the box office. It was a financial flop, despite fairly wide international distribution, the kiss of Sundance and a tiny 2.5mil budget.If you want to see a film that has "real" characters that truly reflects rural people, see Winter's Bone. In fact, if you gave this film a positive review, go see Winter's Bone, watch this one again and then re-write your review.

Like the buried gold of John Cassavetes, were it not for which films like this would be much rarer than they are, David Gordon Green's slice-of-life movie is too understated and sensitive, and knows too much about character, to deal with their lack of sexual harmony as if it contributes to a plot. Another kind of movie would be completely on the subject of whether or not they have sex. But Green, who feels warmly for his weak, naive characters, worries less about sex than about mood and undisciplined young romanticism. Set in a small Southern mill town, All the Real Girls is a young guy like all the others, who is known for having sex with virtually every girl in town, falls in love with his best friend's younger sister, who is a virgin, and has to attest that this time he is in love rather than in lust.Most movies about youthful romance underestimate and depreciate it. Their mocking makers have not felt real love in a very long time, and scoff at it, maybe on account of resentment. They must find something to be funny about fabricating a high school or college-age guy or girl who magically matures free of all that causes the real ones in the audience to find themselves cynical and insecure. Green may or may not have turned out that way, though most of us do, but he has spirit. He knows that people in love enjoy a stationary night simply enjoying existence, because in each other's embrace, their opinions of existence have grown exceptionally.Green's dialogue has a kind of artless, out-and-out spontaneity. His characters don't have big vocabularies, but they have big ideas. Their words illustrates an acquaintance with harsh conditions, disenchantment. We see the effect that we never otherwise do of the way most of us lean. Most movies and TV shows spread ideas and concepts and viewpoints that leave out many everyday people who either don't see life that way or their lives do not apply to those terms. That's why, in spite of how little appeal the film's depicted life is, it has a certain profundity. It's obliging in that no matter how cultivated or different so many others are by comparison to these people, there are basic, natural feelings that we all share.

David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" is unquestionably one of the most authentic 'relationship films' ever made. The romance at the core of the film, between Paul and Noel (played by Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel), is unquestionably realistic and will surely remind almost everyone of their romantic relationships, if not as a whole then certainly in parts.It really is too bad, then, that the rest of the film is uninteresting. I do feel that it is uninteresting partly because the rest of the characters aren't people I can personally relate to or recognize. Not that I relate to every movie I enjoy, as that is certainly not the case, but this whole film appears to have a sense of familiarity, and anyone not born in the American South or somewhere like it may not find the small town itself and the supporting characters all that interesting. I did not. Perhaps with repeat viewings "All the Real Girls" will improve in my eyes, as I almost feel guilty for faulting David Gordon Green for doing pretty much exactly what he set out to do. This film feels real from top to bottom, and it's almost refreshing to see a non-hostile portrayal of the South, but I thought that too much of the film was spent on uninteresting people with uninteresting backgrounds.All my issues with the film end at the script, however. I cannot fault David Gordon Green as director here, simply because this film moves at a pace that perfectly suits the material, because the film looks absolutely gorgeous, and because certain scenes are so breathtakingly stunning that they really do achieve cinematic perfection. The photography by Tim Orr is likewise stunning. I also cannot think of a moment of sub-par acting in this film, and Zooey Deschanel is absolutely incredible, one of the finest female performances of the decade for me.Ultimately this film is an achingly authentic, deliberately-paced, melancholy, romantic joy. I will never be able to say I did not enjoy it. I do wish the supporting characters were more, though, especially Noel's brother, who came across as a pretty obvious and stereotypical character.Update (June 2009): having seen it again I stand by my general attitudes, as poorly-written and incoherent as my review generally is. Too lazy to write a new one.