All The Real Girls

ALL THE REAL GIRLS is the second film from David Gordon Green. Part of it reminds us of romantic poets and the other part does not. Like Green's first film, it is unexpected in the way it implants grand ideas into the minds of unimportant people. Thus, in Green's North Carolina town, a group of people who know each other better than they know themselves, fall into a situation where they each realize love. There is Paul (Paul Schneider) who is known for having sex with everyone he comes across who finally sees a girl he doesn't want to take that road with. His story, and the way he convinces himself not to let that happen is a wonder. There is Bust-Ass (Danny McBride) who looks from afar at love kindling and desires it. And there is Tip (Shea Whigham) who watches Paul fall in love with his sister, and realizes his love for them both, despite inhibitions. Finally, the girl in the film, Noel (Zooey Deschanel), is a presence that has already formulated what love is when she was out at boarding school, now that she is back home, this flows into the boys that move around her. But ALL THE REAL GIRLS isn't as simple as that, for as it employs trenchantly convincing dialogue, realities of mistakes and stupidity fall into place. But everyone holds onto Noel and the idea of love that comes with her, that they hold to her until she must be let go. Paul's mother, Elvira (Patricia Clarkson) embodies the descent these men will make from idealism as she dresses up in a fucking clown costume to go to work. It is this ridiculousness within that which is upheld to importance by the men that creates a slowly realized realism around the characters.
All the Real Girls: ★★★1/2