All the Real Girls (2003)

All the Real Girls: Directed by David Gordon Green. With Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Shea Whigham, Danny McBride. Small-town love story of a young man with a reputation for womanizing and his best friend’s sister.

“World premiere at SUNDANCE 2003. Has a distributor (Sony) and will be in limited release on February 14u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enOFFICIAL PLOT SUMMARY: Twenty-two-year-old Paul lives with his beloved mom and works as a grease monkey in a broken down North Carolina mill town. Unambitious, he has a devoted circle of rowdy friends and a reputation as a callous heartbreaker. When he meets his best friendu0026#39;s sister Noel, fresh from her boarding school graduation, the two fall into a perfect, real, terrifying love. They share innermost secrets and inhabit a sweet, dreamy bubble of mutual admiration and understanding.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enCOMMENTS: The film has to be accepted on its own terms. Slow-paced, sensitive, and dreamy, it gets deep inside of its characters. Paul may be a callous seducer, but heu0026#39;s so gentle with the girl he loves, that he wonu0026#39;t even take her virginity when they get a hotel room. When she makes some mistakes that he considers betrayal, this blue-collar tough guy is just as heartbroken and emotionally vulnerable as anybody with more u0026quot;refinementu0026quot;. Although he is a mechanic in a Southern podunk town, his character is portrayed without any Southern or working class stereotypes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a collaborative movie made by college buddies. Director David Gordon Green and star Paul Schneider also co-wrote the screenplay, and went to college together. Editor Zene Baker is another college buddy. I suppose you might truly call this a true collaboration. Green has the title of director, but when your two best buds are also your editor and screenwriter, not to mention the fact that one of them is on camera constantly, itu0026#39;s difficult to say where one personu0026#39;s contribution ends and anotheru0026#39;s begins.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you would enjoy a slice of life comedy/drama that will probably evoke many memories of how you felt when you won and then lost your first love, this is an effective and heartfelt personal statement about that moment of time. The small town locales and the original score work to perfection.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enNot the way we were in the Hollywood sense, and maybe not a big box office kind of picture, but an insightful look at the way we really were.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThese young fellas are good, dawg!”