Watch All the Real Girls For Free

Wonderful Movie

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Paul (Paul Schneider) hangs out with his friends Tip (Shea Whigham), Bust-Ass (Danny McBride), and Bo (Maurice Compte) in their small town. Paul is known as the town's ladies' man. He's been with every girl but only in short flings. Tip's sister Noel (Zooey Deschanel) comes home after boarding school. Noel is a virgin and thoughtful. Paul falls for her but Tip does not approve.I don't really buy Schneider as this character. He doesn't fit but an indie can have casting problems like this sometimes. It is still very distracting. On the other hand, Zooey Deschanel is wonderful. It's a slow touching romance. The central conceit of Paul is tough to overcome. This is still a nice indie with some charms.

If you've seen 2007's "Snow Angels" or 2004's "Undertow" you'd know that David Gordon Green is a filmmaker of the highest caliber. "Snow Angels" is easily one of the greatest dramas ever filmed and "Undertow" is a mesmerizing piece of Southern Gothic, even while its point remains elusive. This explains why I was geared-up for a great love story/drama with 2003's "All the Real Girls," which was written & directed by Green.Alas, it was not to be. "All the Real Girls" is a huge disappointment.Understand that I love indie flicks because they're generally more creative and daring than their their Hollywood cardboard cut-out counterparts. I prefer creative, unique and daring cinema to formulaic, predictable mainstream drek. But "All the Real Girls" has all the marks of an indie flick gone horribly wrong -- tedious melodrama, uninteresting characters, horrible dialogue that's trying too hard to be "realistic" and artful. I once heard someone say that the greatest sin in cinema is to be boring and I agree. Well, "All the Real Girls" transgresses big time.The only reasons I'm not giving it less than 3 Stars are because the cinematography and locations are spectacular. The film was shot in the Asheville, Marshall & Cherokee regions of Western North Carolina. Plus the actors do a fine job (e.g. Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel & Patricia Clarkson) with Shea Whigham standing out as Tip, the main girl's brother who doesn't want Schneider's character taking advantage of his sister, but that angle goes nowhere. The problem wasn't the actors but rather the dull story and totally stoo-pid dialogue they got saddled with. A good example is when Schneider and Zooey are hanging out in a bowling alley, apparently near closing time because I didn't see or hear another soul, when Schneider says he wants to dance but doesn't want her to see him. So she turns around and he goes into some goofy dance antics. It's a useless, eye-rolling scene, but -- believe it or not -- it's better than the bulk of the dreadfully tedious scenes in the film.The story, on the surface, could've been interesting: A small town (supposed) Casanova falls for a young virgin just back from boarding school. She breaks his heart and he has to deal with it. (Hey, you reap what you sow, sucka). This is a theme we all can relate to one way or another, but it all comes across as a big meaningless zero.If you enjoyed "Snow Angels" and "Undertow" don't expect the same greatness here.GRADE: D+

Nothing very much happens in "All the real girls". Life, such as it is in this sleepy American backwater, goes by but very, very slowly. In itself that's just fine; movies don't have to be 'about' anything. This is David Gordon Green's follow-up to his highly acclaimed "George Washington", (which I haven't seen), and on the strength of this film, if he owes a debt to anyone, it's to Terrence Mallick.The central characters are Paul, (a sexy Paul Schneider), and Noel, (an equally sexy Zooey Deschanel), and to say they are pretty vacant is to credit them with an intelligence they don't have. (This is a film where people spout 'profundities' that they get out of books, even if you can't imagine any of them ever picking up a book). He's the unlikely town Romeo and she's the sister of his best friend and we have to presume they are in love.Green wrote the film from a story he and Schneider devised but it feels improvised. The problem is neither Paul or Noel are good company, nor is anyone else. This is an indie American art-movie filled with its own importance, visually striking in that Terrence Mallick way but something of a slog to sit through. I, for one, was glad when it was over.

David Gordon Green suffers from a strange problem, in that his films have almost all been critically praised, but no one goes to see them. They are hard sells, in that they are hard content. People die, hearts get broken, and the scenes are honest to the highest degree. In 2000, his debut "George Washington" started his career which would be developed into a string of Southern Gothic art house films in the vain of the great Terrence Malick. No one watched it, but it was later released on the Criterion Collection.For his second effort, Green collaborated with Paul Schneider, a friend and actor for the script "All The Real Girls". Another small-town love story from the perspective of a depressive American eye, it was again seen by little to none upon release. Now, with the the build up of his career and films since, Green is on the brink of finding a new audience."All The Real Girls" is a piece of the career's of every person involved. Paul Schneider has gone on to rave reviews in such films as "The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford" and "Lars & The Real Girl" and seems to have a long career ahead of him. Zooey Deschanel is this decade's Parker Posey, being in so many films it's hard to see them all, and teaming up with indie rocker M.Ward to form the musical duo She & Him. The film also was the debut of new popular comedy star Danny McBride, who went on to roles in "Tropic Thunder", "The Foot Fist Way", "Hot Rod" and Green's own "Pineapple Express".As for the content of the film itself, it has to be one of the most honestly heartbreaking romantic films of recent years. It does not suffer from the clichés of many romantic comedies of today, yet they be the ones which lean more into comedy with a romantic back story or the ones which rely more on the expectations of romance. It is photographed beautifully and well-acted by all involved. It stands today as possibly Green's finest work, and should not suffer the lag it has.