Themes: First Love, Mothers and Sons, Sexual Awakening
Main Cast: Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Shea Whigham, Patricia Clarkson, Maurice Compte, Benjamin Mouton, Danny R. McBride
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
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, All Movie Guide
Review
All the Real Girls is writer/director David Gordon Green's achingly romantic follow-up to his acclaimed George Washington, and, shot in the same elliptically poetic style, it confirms Green's status as an American original -- a distinctive chronicler of Southern small town life. The film's nearly abstract approach to plot and dialogue and its idyllic analysis of romantic love and its discontents evoke the early films of Leos Carax, but Green has his own unique rhythm and style. The quiet power of Green's film is greatly abetted by the performances of Paul Schneider as Paul, the callow ladies' man who meets a girl who awakens him to his own hidden depths, and especially the luminous Zooey Deschanel as Noel, the romantic novice whose seeming clarity of purpose masks a morass of confusion. The emotional climax of the film, when Noel reveals something to Paul that jeopardizes their budding relationship, is a beautifully wrought and powerful depiction of the vicissitude of romance. It's a scrupulously honest and memorable scene. For all the poetic non-sequiturs and lush imagery of All the Real Girls, its real power comes from its open simplicity in depicting the joy and pain we're all capable of bringing to those we love. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Jeffrey Barrows - Art Director, Kim Jose - Associate Producer, Mali Finn - Casting, Erin Aldridge Orr - Costume Designer, Jeff Huston - First Assistant Director, David Gordon Green - Director, Adam Stone - Second Unit Director, Steven Gonzales - Editor, Zene Baker - Editor, Derrick Tseng - Line Producer, David Wingo - Composer (Music Score), Michael Linnen - Composer (Music Score), Tim Orr - Cinematographer, Jean Doumanian - Producer, Lisa Muskat - Producer, Summer Eubanks - Set Designer, Chris Gebert - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Gingras - Sound/Sound Designer, David Gordon Green - Screen Story, Paul Schneider - Screen Story, David Gordon Green - Screenwriter
Paul is a womanizer in his early twenties who lives in a small Southern town, where he earns a living fixing cars for his uncle. Paul still lives with his mother, Elvira, who works as a clown cheering up children at the local hospital. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and self-proclaimed partner-in-crime, Tip, and their friends Bo and Bust-Ass. Among his friends, Paul has a reputation as a ladies' man, but he's not at all known for being involved with long-term relationships; most of Paul's romances last only a few weeks, and he's slept with nearly every girl in town. Paul is beginning to reach a point where he would like to lead a different life, and that feeling becomes all the more clear when he meets Noel, Tip's teenage sister who has come back home after attending a boarding school. Noel is more thoughtful and mature than the girls Paul is used to. 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. The relationship grows more serious over time until Paul learns that Noel has cheated on him while visiting friends. While the two of them try to save the failing relationship, it never really works out even though the two of them still have obvious feelings for one another.
Reception
All the Real Girls got mostly positive reviews when it was initially released in 2003. All the Real Girls currently has a 71% rating at rottentomatoes.com[1] The film’s current rating on metacritic.com is 71 out of 100.[2]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times said “Green is 27, old enough to be jaded, but he has the soul of a romantic poet. Wordsworth, after all, was 36 when he published, ‘The Rainbow comes and goes and lovely is the Rose.’ How many guys that age would have that kind of nerve today?” He gave the film a four out of four star rating.[3]
All the Real Girls was not a financial success at the box office. It was made on a budget of $2,500,000 and premiered on January 19, 2003 at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on February 14, 2003 and played in six theaters, bringing in $39,714 in its opening weekend. By the time the film ended its theatrical run on July 10, 2003 it had made $549,666.[4]
The film was nominated for awards at several different film festivals all over the world. Green was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize but won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival along with Clarkson for her role in the film. At the 2004 Chlotrudis Awards, All the Real Girls was nominated for Best Actress, (Deschanel), Best Cinematography (Tim Orr), Best Director (Green), and Best Original Screenplay (Green and Paul Schneider). Deschanel was also nominated for Best Female Lead at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards and Best Actress at the 2004 Mar del Plata Film Festival.[5]
