Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Story of Youth: But Not For The Young
Review: In what must have been a director's dream, David Gordon Green has assembled a cast of actors that, quite simply put, could not be improved upon. Every performance sparkles with a natural quality that feels exactly right. The story is a classically simple one: womanizing boy meets best friend's sister, falls in love, (thereby initially threatening friendship) encounters relationship threatening hardship and doubt, family problems followed by a huge dose of self-examination.
As Paul, Paul Schneider gives a breakthrough performance striking chords that will resonate strongly for most men who made (or are making) the transition from teenage years to manhood, stumbling and bumbling along the way. A powerful combination of bravado and self-doubt ensures we see all sides of Paul's character - good and ill, making him thoroughly someone you instantly like, but still want to knock upside the head.
Zooey Deschanel commands the screen with an innocence that fairly crackles. She also has brings an allure not found in actresses with ten times her experience making Noel's story and predicament identifiable to legions of blossoming young maidens.
A third great performance is found in Shea Whigam's turn at Tip, Paul's best friend. Starting over-the-top, Whigam finds Tip's core, cooling down the hothead. The scene in where he finds himself immediately immersed into adulthood in particular is powerfully moving.
Then there is Patricia Clarkson. With the least amount of screen time of all the principals, as Paul's mother - Elvira, Clarkson gives a performance that could be required viewing for all actors, proving with relish that age old adage "there are no small roles." Watching her, clown make-up and all, in this searing performance was, alone, worth the price of admission. Getting to Elvira's heart we feel her frustration at the loss of dreams and having to cope with the harsh, brutal realization that life may not turn out anything even remotely how we may have planned. If Clarkson doesn't break your heart see a doctor.
Some may find the slow, lyrical pace of All The Real Girls a bit measured, but the movie provides rare rewards for those who stay with it.
Ultimately, I think viewers who will judge this movie most harshly (and I've been proven right) are those close to the age of the film's characters - too close to be truly observant. Those over 30 will inherently know what this is all about.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful.
Review: My name is actually Cari Hollrah, and I never write these reviews...ever. After I watched this movie, I wanted it to be mine. Not in the sense that I wanted to own the DVD, but in the sense that I wanted the movie all for myself. I wanted to carry it around in my pocket and only let people that I truly trust view it for themselves. It is too real, and it hurt, and I love it.
Rating:
Summary: SPOTS
Review: Paul (Paul Schneider) is the kind of good looking, teddy bear, cuddly, slow talkin', sly bad boy that women adore and fall hard for. And he's taken advantage of this like most guys of his ilk and has earned a well deserved bad rep for loving and leaving 'em; which is particularly sticky for Paul because he lives in a small, going to seed town in middle America in which Everyone knows Everyone else... and they all know Paul's business.
Paul meets Noel (Zooey Deschanel) and he decides to change his spots and, treat her with respect and thereby repent and follow the straight and narrow, as it were. Noel has other ideas, though.
David Gordon Green, the director and writer of "All The Real Girls" has structured this movie in a very laidback, molasses in the summer manner and has cut the film into many short scenes: some with dialogue, many without. He's after the long term, not the immediate effect of these images to have their impact and for the most part he succeeds; even though the first 15 minutes of the film is hard going, as we don't know what he is trying to do and the stiffness of the actors and their delivery of the dialogue begins to get irritating.
Yet, the most touching scenes in this film are those between Paul and his Mom (Patricia Clarkson), Paul and his Uncle and Paul and his friends. His friends, all of them men in their 20's, are guys who are not afraid to open up emotionally to each other. All of these scenes are so warm and natural that they seem improvised. In fact, Gordon shows that these people, though under-educated but obviously endowed with an extraordinary amount of horse sense, have an intelligent and insightful awareness of their emotions and an appreciation of all the relationships in their lives. These scenes crackle with truth and nobility.
In many ways "All The Real Girls" owes a lot to the French Nouvelle Vague in that it is the accumulation of the images and the dialogue that ultimately hits you with it's intended effect: most scenes do not have a climax as the director builds his arsenal of scenes and moods. We are so used to the very literal, linear film that this style of filmmaking makes us antsy for the director to "get on with it." But Green is not making "XXX" here...he's trying to tell a subtle, personal love story and he is not in one bit of a hurry to do it.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Not Easy To Maintain A Focused Narrative For Two Hours
Review: The first half of All The Real Girls is an atmospheric, visually intoxicating exploration of the beginnings of deep love with a narrative structure that I found full of wonderful odd touches and surprises. Then a weekend separation between the newly formed couple ensues and when they reunite, an entirely different sort of film morphs into view. For me, this transition (an egregious discontinuity in both plot and filmic ambiance) failed to work. To the extent that the first hour of the film had me mesmerized with its highly nuanced, impressionistic approach to the way in which authentic attachment between individuals progresses, the second hour seemed tediously bloated with cliche and weighed down by an often hard to believe storyline. I made it a point to see All The Real Girls because I have greatly enjoyed the work of actress Zooey Deschanel in minor roles in movies like The New Guy and The Good Girl. I have always wanted the opportunity to see what she would do with a more expansive part. I thought she was excellent in All The Real Girls up to the breach; fully able to handle the considerable burden of holding an audience's attention over a significant period of time. I look forward to seeing her in future starring roles in films that hopefully use her formidable talents to better overall effect.
Rating: 
Summary: Time wasted.
Review: The plot is weak.
No chemistry between lead actors.
Dialogs are poorly written.
There is very little "realistic" about the movie, unless your reality is bottle's bottom.
And grown up people mostly behave like children in a sandbox.
I highly recommend buying this movie as a gift to your girlfriend, with whom you are about to break up.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, odd, silly, brilliant, terrifying, comforting
Review: There is no movie anything remotely like this. David Gordon Green takes a simple, almost cliched story of young love, and lets it blossom and throb and crawl and vomit and sigh on the screen. Most directors would write off the themes and emotions of such a story as juvenile and low-minded. But Green bravely gives this romance the attention and poetic weight that we all give these trists when we're in the middle of them. I also happen to think it was the funniest movie of 2003. Watch it. It'll make you wanna make love. It'll make you wanna be abstinate for life. At the same time.
Rating:
Summary: cold mountain dew
Review: These guys got it right...almost. They do a great job capturing the innocence, awkwardness, and cocky assuredness of young adolescence in a "truth of moment" sort of way. The script and cinematography are the real strengths as you feel you're catching a young director at his last moment before the world takes notice. Another fitting description, "I am a student of Terrence Malick" - the visual poetry is balanced by language vs. still photos. Nature and the human element personified. The film plays out as star-crossed lovers grapple with their past transgressions, first real love, and come face-to-face with the real culprits - themselves. Very seldom is there room in a relationship for both parties to be ultra cool and hip as we soon find out. Their relationship is affected by family and friends alike as these people feel almost hillbilly close. Shot in the hills of North Carolina, the timeless look and feel serve as a private invitation to participate in their mistakes and joys. There is a tad of the unbelievable here though. Many of the lines are a bit rich for these backwoods yahoos and goofballs. We asked to accept these folk are wise beyond their years, but the whole group of them at the same time? Doubtful. It's also obvious this tight group of crew and cast have worked together before. The cohesion that takes place is subliminal, unspoken, and understood as the initial scene immediately draws you in. David Gordon Green as a director is a heartbeat away from being offered a big, blockbuster Hollywood script. As he has a gift, let's hope young Green can resist the huge temptation and continue to tell these honest, poignant, personal, and very touching tales. A rare and wonderful project brought to life should be shared with someone you love - past, present, or future.
Rating:
Summary: Great acting + Great directing = Great movie
Review: This is a romance movie, to beat all romance movies. THe thing i love about this movie is the storyline of it, not that i would give the movie away by telling it but to just say that its modern and none of those cheesy mediocre played out storyline that has a lot of star named actors with no talent, no this movie does not have any of that rather it has talent and a lot of it. The main character of the movie is a surprisingly good actor although i have not seen him in any other movie, he is also the co-writer of the movie, he is also very hot. I think that this is Zooey Deshchenel's greatest film ever she is so sweet and inocent in it that you just fall in love in her too. So All the real girls is about this girl (zooey) who comes back to her small hometown after many years at an all girls bording school, she falls in love with her very protective older brother's best friend. Their love for each other is so perfect and innocent that it just makes you oozze for love and makes you think that there might be love in this world after all. i'm not one for romantic lovey dovey movies but i this isn't one of those just a really good movie, go and see it with a loved one.
Rating:
Summary: Great acting + Great directing = Great movie
Review: This is a romance movie, to beat all romance movies. THe thing i love about this movie is the storyline of it, not that i would give the movie away by telling it but to just say that its modern and none of those cheesy mediocre played out storyline that has a lot of star named actors with no talent, no this movie does not have any of that rather it has talent and a lot of it. The main character of the movie is a surprisingly good actor although i have not seen him in any other movie, he is also the co-writer of the movie, he is also very hot. I think that this is Zooey Deshchenel's greatest film ever she is so sweet and inocent in it that you just fall in love in her too. So All the real girls is about this girl (zooey) who comes back to her small hometown after many years at an all girls bording school, she falls in love with her very protective older brother's best friend. Their love for each other is so perfect and innocent that it just makes you oozze for love and makes you think that there might be love in this world after all. i'm not one for romantic lovey dovey movies but i this isn't one of those just a really good movie, go and see it with a loved one.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: This is another one of those impressionistic movies that get marketed as a "love story" but are really more about their protagonist (cf Un Coeur En Hiver, Leaving Las Vegas, etc...), in this case a promiscuous guy (maybe early 20s-ish) grappling with his first romantic relationship in which the relationship isn't simply a means to have sex. Although it structure adheres to the linear structure of the relationship, the style is basically a portraiture of moments in the relationship ("important" and otherwise) and of his intereactions with friends and family, which gives it a feeling of singularity, that's more like looking at a photograph than anything else. It's well acted and directed (at least on par with George Washington), and is often very beautiful looking, although the soundtrack (which is otherwise well suited to the movie) is occasionally intrusive.All the Real Girls is a very good movie, that is definately worth the price of admission/rental/purchase, and one that holds up to repeat viewings (the commentary is also worth a listen).
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