David Gordon Green's ALL THE REAL GIRLS

[oscar jubis]

Much has been written recently about an arts reinassance in the American South. In the medium of cinema, one name stands above the rest, 28 year old Little Rock native David Gordon Green.
Mr. Green attended film school in North Carolina and sets his films in North Carolina mill towns. His first feature GEORGE WASHINGTON , is primarily about a racially mixed group of kids who find a dead body. The kids are played by amateurs. Green's current film, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, invites Patricia Clarkson and Zooey Deschanel to kick up the jams. The result is a film that won a Special Jury Award for Emotional Truth at Sundance. If psychological verisimilitude, insight into human behavior, and evocation of place are valuable to you, watch it today. It's about a "playa", early 20s, who falls hard for his best buddy's inexperienced 18 y.o. sis. Hope folks want to discuss it further.

[treadman]

This is the best film I've seen so far this year. And Sony totally threw it away like an unwanted rag.

The scope photography is the best of the year. Green is like the new Terrence Malick only more prolific.

[oscar jubis]

All the Real Girls is quite special and I agree, there's an audience for this film and Sony failed to reach out to it. But audience reaction was mixed after the screening I attended. Some simply found it "slow" and I heard groans and sighs when Noel tells Paul: "I had a dream that you grew a garden in a trampoline and I was so happy I invented peanut butter". BTW tread, your Malick comparison is apt.

[treadman]

People who find it slow are the kind who will only go to popcorn flicks. by nature, these people have zero tolerance for a film that takes its' time telling its' story and has something intelligent to say.

The line that Noel says to Paul may seem goofy, but it gives great insight into her character..

Green creates such voluptous images like Malick did with his (sadly) THREE movies...

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by treadman
The line that Noel says to Paul may seem goofy, but it gives great insight into her character.
I described Noel as "inexperienced" in my opening post, to which I might add "immature", since that line would more likely be uttered by a younger person. It emphasizes Noel's vulnerability in the face of Paul's advances. It sets up the surprise "twist", the shame and the heartbreak of arguably All the Real Girls' most powerful scene.

[treadman]

Green just wrapped his newest film UNDERTOW scheduled for release in 2004 by Miramax.

He's also going to start A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. I can't think of a more perfect director for the job. I hope Drew Barrymore (who's producing and starring) butts out and let Green do what he does best because if she's going to turn this into one of her girl power pictures, I'd rather it be shut down.

[Chris Knipp]

I had a very mixed reaction to this movie which I saw in London summer of last year. Maybe I felt that way about Robert Frank and John Cassavetes in the Sixties; there's a kind of selfconscious amateurish artiness that I find unappealing, and others, the people who love the more obscure screenings and sources of cinema, love it. Please read my review and see if it makes any sense to you. I can assure you I don't trash the movie. http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=138

I have just seen where somebody on this website defined City of God as overrated one-star crap. I use terms like that very sparingly and only think three or four movies a year are worth calling overrated. David Gordon Green isn't overrated because few people see his films or rate him at all. I will keep on seeing what he does and I wish him well. I haven't been overwhelmed yet. I remember that Elvis Mitchell named George Washington the movie of the year on his ten best list during its year. We all have our special pets. I don't think Green has the technical excellence of Malick but no doubt he has a special southern sensibility which may yet yield something of real note. Robert Frank's films may be boring and self-indulgent but his book of photographs The Americans is a pioneering work and a classic vision of this country in the Fifties.

To me the peanut butter - trampoline line wasn't embarrassing, just a bit too cute and quirky; but then this director is a little overfond of his own quirkiness. The scene that I found embarrassing and tedious was the very first one.

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I had a very mixed reaction to this movie which I saw in London summer of last year. Maybe I felt that way about Robert Frank and John Cassavetes in the Sixties; there's a kind of selfconscious amateurish artiness that I find unappealing, and others, the people who love the more obscure screenings and sources of cinema, love it. Please read my review and see if it makes any sense to you. I can assure you I don't trash the movie. http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=138 I agree with your general impression of this film. Here is my review:
ALL THE REAL GIRLS

Directed by David Gordon Green (2003)

All the Real Girls, the latest film by David Gordon Green (George Washington), travels a thin line between art and artifice and is at times borderline insufferable. The story about young people with little prospects in an economically depressed mill town in North Carolina has the quality of a dream, often impeccably authentic; other times lost in a sea of poetics that feels staged and inorganic. Paul, a 22 year-old played by Paul Schneider, has a reputation as a womanizer and claims he has slept with 26 women though he seems unconvincing as a Casanova type. He is friends with Noel (Zooey Deschanel), a vulnerable and inexperienced 18-year old girl who has just returned from six years at a girl's boarding school.

The dialogue often sounds natural: "I'm looking at that old bucket, thinking, 'I like you", Noel says to Paul, "I like you because I can say what's on my mind". Other times it just feels phony when she tells Noel "I wish it didn't hurt with every thought of you. You have my heart". Uncomfortable about his past sexual conquests, Paul tries to prove that Noel is different from all the other girls by refusing to have sex with her but this just adds another layer of tension.

Paul works for his Uncle Leland (Ben Mouton) in his garage but spends most of his spare time hanging out with his slow-witted buddies Tip (Shea Whigham), Bo (Maurice Compte) and Bust-Ass (Danny McBride). Paul's relationship with Noel angers her protective brother Tip even though Paul is one of his best friends and, after a confrontation that threatens violence. Tip yells at Paul pathetically as he is walking away, "We ain't friends no more, you ain't even in my top ten." Paul lives with his mother Elvira (Patricia Clarkson) who works at a local hospital as a clown to entertain sick children.

Elvira loves her son but he reminds her too much of all the men in her life who came and went. "You're not educated, honest, or strong", she tells him and "You don't have any faith like every other man that's ever been in my life." When he dresses up in a clown outfit to help her out at the children's ward and breaks into a spontaneous dance, the film delivers one of its few inspired moments. As the film progresses, Paul and Noel work slowly toward establishing a level of trust. They engage in conversations about their family, their past, and future hopes but the trust is threatened and the relationship stumbles into unfamiliar territory when Noel spends a weekend at a house party.

There is nothing smooth or polished about the characters. They are frustratingly inarticulate, yet there is an honesty in the way Mr. Green perceives them that is miles from typical Hollywood cynicism. With gorgeous scenery and a moody indie-rock soundtrack, Mr. Green has a way of drawing us into his world of the quirky and offbeat and the film captures the uncertainty and fears of first love. Ultimately, however, for all the charm and the "sincere" conversations, there is too little probing of the main characters for me to feel that I understood them as real people. All the Real Girls is a sweet film but I found it too superficial and precious to be fully satisfying.

GRADE: B

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for posting this. You write excellent reviews and I admire your use here of dialogue to evaluate the authenticity of the character protrayals.

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Thanks for posting this. You write excellent reviews and I admire your use here of dialogue to evaluate the authenticity of the character protrayals. Muchos gracias, amigo.