All the Real Girls (2003)

All the Real Girls (2003)

Written by David Gordon Green and Paul Schneider

Directed by David Gordon Green

           

            It’s hard to say exactly what it is that I liked about this movie.  Then again, it’s impossible to say what I didn’t like, because I liked damn near all of it.  This movie was subtle and underrated, brilliant and beautiful.  My mistake was watching Green’s movies in reverse order.  I started with Pineapple Express, then moved on to Snow Angels (another beautiful, moving drama), and then finished off with this, what I consider his best (but I think I need to revisit Snow Angels sometime soon).

            The plot is like this: Paul is the local hometown hero in a small North Carolina town.  He’s the guy that has all the friends and he’s had his fair share of the nether-regions of the local ladies, if you know what I mean (I mean he’s laid nearly ever girl in town).  In other words, he is to a small town in 2003, what Shia LaBeouf is Hollywood in 2009.  He hangs out with his friends Tip, Bust-Ass (played by the always brilliant Danny McBride, in an early role), and Bo.  When Tip’s sister Noel (Zooey Deschanel) returns home from somewhere, only to be immediately pursued by Paul.  Because they are BFFL, Tip knows that Paul has, until very recently, been a womanizing asshole, and doesn’t want Paul to have anything to do with Noel.  Thus begins the fight that most young, male friends have simply called “Can I Date Your Sister.”  Some other stuff happens, Noel does some fucked up shit out of left field, Paul ends up broken hearted from the first girl he actually cared about, end picture.

All the Real Girls plays as the non-funny, sequential version of 500 Days of Summer.  In both, Zooey Deschanel plays the love interest and proves, yet again, why she is my dream girlfriend.  Funny? Check.  Smart? Check.  Quirky? Check.  Beautiful? Check Check Check.  In all honesty, I’d be fairly content if she played every love interest in every movie for the rest of history.  Comedy, drama, action, it doesn’t really matter to me.  This was the role she was born to play, and the only reason that my framed 500 Days poster with 500 pictures of her came down was so it could be replaced by my not-so-secret man crush Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the new Alice in Wonderland.  If I had to choose between a theoretical life without either of them, I’d gladly theoretically lay my head on a train track and wait for the 3:38 to Penn Station to arrive.  Zooey’s performance here got her nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2004, amongst other things, and she really deserved it.  Going into this flick, I’d seen her in plenty of flicks but nothing really stood out acting-wise.  Well in this one, she proves why she’s such a hot commodity in indie flicks.  She really does a fine job, and I commend her.  Also performing incredibly well is Paul Schneider, co-writer and male lead.  You may have seen him before in Parks and Recreation (the increasingly funny other show from the makes of The Office), Away We Go, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Crawford, or Elizabethtown, amongst countless others.  He really does a good job here, essentially playing me, or you, or anybody else who has ever been fucked over by all of his friends, family, and (most recently) a significant other.  Patricia Clarkson also shows up here as Paul’s mom, but it’s kind of weird because she’s a clown and she really looks like she’s about 4 and a half months older than Paul, who is supposed to be 20, but looks 29, which is much closer to his actual age (he was born in 76, which would make him 33 now, which would make him about 26/27 at the time of filming).  The performances are the real star here, as the entire cast delivers on every level.  At times it doesn’t seem like they’re acting, so much as just having natural conversations.

Also worth noting is the cinematography by Tim Orr, who has worked with David Gordon Green on all of his features.  If there’s one thing that Green excels at, it’s making his pictures look fantastic, and that case holds true here.  He lingers on sunsets, faces, landscapes for far longer than most directors would dare, and it helps him.  This movie is nothing short of beautiful, and its scenery is conveyed in a natural way.

Chances are you haven’t seen this one.  It went largely unnoticed in its 2003 release, but received heapings of praise by critics and film-goers alike.  If you’re in the mood for a small, touching drama, then check this one out, it’s well worth your time.