If George Washington didn't cement the notion that David Gordon Green was an ambitious, careful new writer-director, his sophomore film All the Real Girls should do the honors. Here is a soft, warm, and often frighteningly realistic portrayal of a young relationship in the south, burdened by pasts no one wants to talk about and futures no one is really sure of. This is yet another film where Green magnifies tight-knit relationships in seemingly desolate communities.The film stars Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschannel (who, with short hair in later scenes, looks strikingly like actress Greta Gerwig) as Paul and Noel. Paul lives with his mother, who works as a clown at children's hospitals, and has a reputation for being a womanizer who shies away from long-term relationships. Noel is a more mature, if quirkier, young woman and the two hit it off when they first meet. Paul hangs around with a group of guys, one of whom is played by Danny McBride, and loves to have vulgar, immature dialogs. But when he hangs with Noel, he has much more intimate, mature conversations, as they see eye-to-eye on much more than they'd believe.What unfolds is a truly beautiful relationship, one where the idea of sex crosses the mind but isn't directly acted upon. This is because Paul genuinely cares about Noel's feelings, and because of this, acts in a more restrained, conservative manner. If he didn't feel so attached to her, he would've easily had sex with her a few days after knowing her and perhaps add her to the laundry list of girls he slept with in a week or so. But he becomes so close with her that it frightens him, and makes him think about how his life my change with this woman.This story wouldn't have worked half as well with lesser screen presences. Schneider and Deschannel provide leverage emotionally and narratively that wouldn't exist if the shoes of Paul and Noel were filled by performances more driven by beauty and a script more concerned with petty mawkishness. I constantly see young girls - and older ones, too - flock towards the latest film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, with incredulous romances, trite instances, and utterly lame characters. The harmful effect with those films are they provide audiences, particularly females with the idea that relationships like this actually exist and picturesque beauty is a commonality in the deepest of relationships. I would recommend the same crowd All the Real Girls if I knew my recommendation wouldn't be instantly discarded when they realizes how independent, subtle, and serene the film actually is.The glue holding the film together is the score, which combines that kind of rare beauty in certain instances that would seem trivial if they weren't made noteworthy in some way. The score livens common events in the characters' lives like talking, cuddling, walking, or simple scenic shots of the south. The cinematography is done by Tim Orr, the same man who made the dreary, urban landscape of North Carolina a character in Green's George Washington. Needless to say, after providing that film with such incomparable beauty, his work here is equally impressive.All the Real Girls doesn't blind the viewer with potency in symbolism and subtlety like that film, but it makes for just as engaging of a viewing. It offers a study on a believable relationships that one is hardpressed to find in other romantic films. Just like most independent films, it isn't complete unless there are a few questionable instances, and one in particular, I can see angering viewers. It's so odd and undeveloped that it leaves a bit of a pungent aftertaste after seeing such a deep, intimate picture. But that's film.Starring: Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, and Danny McBride. Directed by: David Gordon Green.

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.

All the Real Girls is a love story, but according to director David Gordon Green on the DVD he would almost not want to explain what it's about. The reason for this turns out to sound, perhaps, a little too high-minded or poetic, maybe just pretentious, as he expounds upon the way the sun hits the two and a half legged dog and that that's what the movie is 'about'. In short, he explains, the movie is just about how we are. That's possibly a good way of explaining it, or reasoning it or whatever, since the film is not entirely classifiable almost in spite of its more typical and tender elements. But as a work of a director like Green it is something that is all his own, for better or worse (mostly for better), which is something that has been seen in the work he's put out so far with the possible exception or amendment of Pineapple Express.It's by no means a really great love story nor a really great film. Yet as someone who has tried to crack writing his own relationship dramas, this struck a chord. There are real scenes of truth, of revelation and insight, and tenderness and the resolve to try and accept the way things are which can never be done. Paul Schneider plays a character named Paul (how close to real life I leave to you to figure on), who is something of a town Lothario, albeit not really proud of it as we later learn. He and Noel (Zooey Deschanel) fall for each other despite the angry protest of her hick brother Tip. We then see the relationship unfold as something of a first-young love scenario, both for Paul and for virgin Noel, and how it plays out against some more specific drama and character interplay with Paul's frustrated hospital-clown mother (Clarkson) and friend Bust-Ass (Danny McBride).As tends to happens in certain young-love movies, there's something that happens that occurs that mucks the whole thing up- more-so for Paul than Noel in one of those 'funny' kind of hard to take ways- and yet Green even treats this as well as other tougher moments with care and attention to how real and awkward and truthful the actors should play it. This doesn't necessarily mean all the scenes work completely or feel a little jagged with the patient (not really slow) pacing. But when they do work they work very well, like a confession Noel makes to Paul in the hotel room, or a silly scene at a bowling alley. And while Green paints his 'canvas' of sorts with this sleepy blue-collar North Carolina town with some arty montages (the SKY, the high-speed factory, hills and landscapes, pretty pictures), the actors are surprisingly good with seeming to do so little. Part of that is the subtle strengths in the writing, and some of it is just how Scheider and Deschanel keep things simple and sensitive. Even Whigham has a good scene expanding his character. Clarkson is also a given for doing small wonders on screen.If it's not quite one of the most mind-blowing romance films I've seen this decade, it might be that I wasn't entirely in the right frame of mind, or didn't find all of the little scenes with the supporting characters worked as well as the central "plot" (in quotes for redundancy), or that the music is sometimes placed in ill-fitting scenes or is too sappy for my taste. These criticisms aren't to say it's a very well accomplished effort, a small and intelligent picture that doesn't cheat on its characters. It is familiar, and it feels very much a true Sundance fest effort, but it's better than others I've come across for its originality and tact.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the most realistic film ever made, by miles. Everything about it from the familiarity of the people and relationships in the town to the dialogue is simply authentic. My jaw dropped when I heard the brilliant dialogue. It never feels like the actors are reading off of a script of playing out someone else's words. Every word, every pause, every look is so brutally natural that you can't stop yourself from being completely immersed in the world that Green introduces.It is also the most heartbreaking film I've encountered. The idea of an affair is brought up in so many films, to the point where it's just become something common. Even in one of my favorite films, Closer, an affair is brought up and it just feels so meaningless. You just get a feeling of "Ouch, he's going to be mad. Alright, next scene." and it's become such a dry and typical plot device. This film completely turns this around and creates one of the most shattering scenes I've ever had to watch. You fall so in love with the characters and want so badly for their relationship to prevail, but when Noel drops this bombshell the viewer, like Paul, becomes absolutely devastated. The sex scene is the most painfully hard to watch scene I've ever come across. It subtly displays the complete degradation and travesty that their relationship has turned into and brought me to tears.There is so much depth and so many symbolisms in the film that relate to their relationships throughout the picture. A great example would be Noel's haircut as a disruption of nature just as her weekend away was the catalyst to their separation. There was also the river displayed in the end when Paul is trying to teach his dog how to swim. He points out that the river flows two ways, and I think this is a metaphor for their relationship. Both characters are moving on their own way. When they cross paths it's beautiful, but then they pass on into their own opposing journeys. Paul is transforming from a sexually promiscuous man into a deep lover who cares more about an internal relationship than a physical one, and his relationship with Noel is what helped him become this. Noel transforms from a shy, isolated virgin into a more outgoing and sexually experienced woman, and it was their relationship that propelled this change. This is easily the most authentic and devastating film I have ever seen. I was completely wrecked.