All the Real Girls (2003)

Here's another movie that too many critics have jumped up and down over and that finally disappoints. There is nothing wrong with trying to bring a fresh take to the love story, but to do this, one needs characters that are truly real and worth spending nearly two hours with. This film begin well, and the two leads draw you in, but then their characters start behaving so stupidly that eventually there's little point in remaining attuned. The photography is first-class, and the acting (when the script permits) is generally good. But this is now two films from David Gordon Green that--if you listen to the critics--promise much but deliver little.

Fmovies: A perfect movie to watch if you're in the mood to just chill out and watch the sunset but it's already dark. It offers the meditative sensation of Baraka combined with a nearly pitch perfect portrayal of a small town slice of life topped off with an inherently interesting 'young love' story. My only thoughts for the filmmaker (and in my opinion a significant oversight) would be to figure out how to wrap up the story without affecting the tone... the last quarter felt tedious as you began to expect the traditional dramatic/thematic resolution and therefore anticipate the number of scenes to come; which work best when you're not intellectually involved but emotionally - or even better - intuitively involved.... once the brain clicks in, the experience becomes of one of anticipation and with a film like this, impatience.

... It captures perfectly the awkwardness of really loving somebody, but not being sure how to take it a stage further without destroying what's been built up. As a viewer, you'll most likely believe in the central relationship and not want it to hit problems; because YOU wouldn't want it to end, either, if you were in their situation. It's underscored throughout by a wonderfully gentle soundtrack, too.

There are long sequences of elegiac wistfulness; staring out over beautiful scenery. With 9 films out of ten that try this tactic, I would get impatient, choosing to believe that this is a director's underhanded way of trying to pad out the runtime. Not here. The sense of loss evoked by the visuals and the mournful score is absolutely key to the films emotional impact. If for some reason you're not tuned into the mood; then I can imagine this style would be annoying; but I found myself completely immersed, and it was great. This is the first film from David Gordon Green I've come across, but I shall be eagerly on the lookout for the rest of his stuff in the future, based on this wonderful evidence.

All the Real Girls fmovies. It's good every now and then to come across a film like All the Real Girls. Here is a romance which is realistic and virtually free of gimmick and clichés. It is also photographed beautifully, scored beautifully and characterized in a unusual and interesting manner. It is a film that leaves you thinking, but for all its goodness, it still needs a bit of work.

In a small town, Paul has a reputation for having sex affairs with all the local girls (twenty- six to be exact). One day, his best friend's sister drives into town for a visit. She and Paul hang out together first as friends but eventually as a strange couple. it looks as if Paul is ready to go strait for the first time, something which is making his friends and family a little suspicious. What is to come?

After the first hour, All the Real Girls is close to being a great film, but something goes wrong. I should point out that in addition to a romance, the movie is also a drama, and dramas need a conflict of some sort. Writer/Director David Gordon Green chooses to throw one in to begin the final act, and he does it in an overly forced, abrupt manner. The scenes which follow are not terrible, but they don't quite match the rest of the picture. They are less interesting and more melodramatic. The ending in fact is kind of sad, but it reminds you that this is not an artificial fictional story, this is a movie which delivers a potential real life scenario.

Ignoring the mild errors, All the Real Girls is one of the most accomplished romance films I've seen lately, and it's worth watching.

World premiere at SUNDANCE 2003. Has a distributor (Sony) and will be in limited release on February 14

OFFICIAL PLOT SUMMARY: Twenty-two-year-old Paul lives with his beloved mom and works as a grease monkey in a broken down North Carolina mill town. Unambitious, he has a devoted circle of rowdy friends and a reputation as a callous heartbreaker. When he meets his best friend's sister Noel, fresh from her boarding school graduation, the two fall into a perfect, real, terrifying love. They share innermost secrets and inhabit a sweet, dreamy bubble of mutual admiration and understanding.

COMMENTS: The film has to be accepted on its own terms. Slow-paced, sensitive, and dreamy, it gets deep inside of its characters. Paul may be a callous seducer, but he's so gentle with the girl he loves, that he won't even take her virginity when they get a hotel room. When she makes some mistakes that he considers betrayal, this blue-collar tough guy is just as heartbroken and emotionally vulnerable as anybody with more "refinement". Although he is a mechanic in a Southern podunk town, his character is portrayed without any Southern or working class stereotypes.

It's a collaborative movie made by college buddies. Director David Gordon Green and star Paul Schneider also co-wrote the screenplay, and went to college together. Editor Zene Baker is another college buddy. I suppose you might truly call this a true collaboration. Green has the title of director, but when your two best buds are also your editor and screenwriter, not to mention the fact that one of them is on camera constantly, it's difficult to say where one person's contribution ends and another's begins.

If you would enjoy a slice of life comedy/drama that will probably evoke many memories of how you felt when you won and then lost your first love, this is an effective and heartfelt personal statement about that moment of time. The small town locales and the original score work to perfection.

Not the way we were in the Hollywood sense, and maybe not a big box office kind of picture, but an insightful look at the way we really were.

These young fellas are good, dawg!

All the Real Girls This is possibly the most accurate film about coming of age in small town America. It does this two ways first as other reviewers have noted the cast in the film portrays a realistic group of people making the best of it in a small town. Their behaviors are ordinary and often verge on boring much like a "normal person" in a small town, and not what Hollywood would have us believe youth/people are like. Upon further reflection I realize anyone outside of the norm really sticks out in this film in an awkward if not contemptible way. For the youth it is basically a waiting age for the big thing that will enhance their lives. I do not believe any of the young characters had much of anything resembling a job. They young cast of men hang out at a salvage yard and help/get in the way through the movie. The older characters are stoic and though they say little you get a feeling that they have seen it all before possibly in their own lives or of others.

The second amazing thing about this film is how well it captures the pace of small town life. It is repetitive and monotonous but in the stillness maybe one is capable of seeing more beauty then in faster paced places. I have never been to a North Carolina mill town and till this film never even thought about one but the filming of the area is very well done showing beauty where you least expect it be it the rain in a textile factor or someone going "Shhh shh".

On these two factors alone I'd recommend this film but the acting and story is very solid. It has been over a year since I viewed the film but the images still come to mind rather vividly, but the names of the characters escape me so I will leave that to others. I do not know who directed this film or for that matter recognized any of the actors but that is more of a testament of how strong of a work this film is and I highly recommend it.