Paul Schneider probably the most under appreciated actor of his era. A young Philip S Hoffman.

Zooey Deschanel is great but the film isn't.

The film just sort of meanders for its nearly two hour runtime.

It was natural and authentic.

Crossing another David Gordon Green film off the list, this one is solid, with a small town love story about a guy dating his friend's sister while trying to shake a reputation that he may break her heart. The film was slightly puzzling to me, in that the actors seemed to be playing these character's much younger than I would have expected, with reactions you'd see in people of a much younger age, but after I got used to that it wasn't so distracting. Well worth a look and I'm happy to say that this director has yet to let me down with any of the films he's made.

So honest and a lot of believable chemistry between Paul and Zooey!!! One of my fav movies!

beautiful, honest, strong movie

Zooey is great as always, and the story is raw and real.

All the Real Girls is a well acted film staring Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel. This film is about finally reaching a level of maturity where others are before yourself. There is excellent character development and the characters are so likeable. Zooey Deschanel does a great job at portraying the innocent and loveable character. The short scene and jumps in time work well to hold focus on the development of the characters. The ending is left open and could have been done a bit better but the point of the film was growth and maturing, not finding true love.

real,heartbreaking,frustrating, and well written.

Sorry, didn't see much point to this film. Some of the cinematography was beautiful, but otherwise, what started as a nice love story turned into a story about a hypocrite who had made plenty of mistakes himself not being able to forgive a confused younger girl for one she made.

splendid. David Gordon Green is getting it right

<i>All the Real Girls</i> is a film of tender romance, one that is rarely seen in the movies. It has little plot, being approached much more like a documentary than your normal drama. Much of it appears to be improvised, and I would almost believe that the relationship between the two leads was real instead of scripted, based on their chemistry and the way that each scene plays out. You stop becoming aware that you're watching a movie. You forget that the camera is showing you these events and that you're not just standing there, watching these people go about their lives. The cause of all the drama is a man named Paul (Paul Schneider), a former womanizer who wants to start turning his life around. He meets Noel (Zooey Deschanel) before our film even begins, and in the very first scene we see them together, he refuses to kiss her on the lips. Why? Because he's afraid. Afraid that he'd have to explain himself, and possibly because he doesn't want his past tendencies to take over. She, in her first real relationship, has no clue what she's doing. However, because she trusts him intimately -- each one is clearly in love with the other; we can see that clearly -- she lets him make the decisions regarding how fast the relationship moves. There's not a whole lot of tension here, save for Noel's brother, Tip (Shea Whigham), starting to wonder if Paul is the right guy for her, and another twist in the story that I'm not going to reveal, as you need to witness it for yourself. It'll be more powerful that way. Much of the film involves talking. That's pretty much it. You learn a lot about each of the main characters this way, and the seemingly heavily improvised dialogue always gives you something interesting to hear. I'm sure the characters were given to the actors and they were given a basic direction regarding how each scene should play out. Afterward, they were free to make up their own words and the camera would just focus on them for as long as they wanted to go on. This makes the characters for real, as they basically are. Maybe many of the emotions aren't actually being felt by these actors, but they're so convincing that it doesn't matter. They're fully in character, and they're saying whatever it is that they think their character would be thinking about at the time. And Director David Gordon Green, in his second feature, just allows them to go about it. He places his trust in these actors, and the payoff is superb. These characters become real, not like most movie people, and we care for them all the more because of this. There are a couple of additional subplots, like Paul's relationship with his mother (Patricia Clarkson), with whom he still lives despite being in his mid twenties, or the one between Paul and all of his friends, but the focus is most definitely on the one with Noel. Every scene that the two characters share are worthwhile. They're given all the time in the world to talk, to work on things, and to show us who they are. It's only natural that we care about them with this technique. Some of what little story there is feels forced. I didn't understand one decision by a character late in the picture, and I felt like I should have. You can, I'm sure, justify it, given where the character is in life and the influences pushing against him/her, but the rationale for the character to do it wasn't there. Perhaps that's the point, in that irrational decisions are a part of life, but even that's not talked about. It was just an "I did it, okay?" thing, and that was that. And if you're thinking I just gave away what happens, think again. It all leads up to an ambiguous and slightly unsatisfying ending. It makes sense in context, but when the emotions are this high, you want to see, for better or worse, how it's all going to work out. You don't get that here. You have to interpret it and figure it all out for yourself. I don't mind doing the work, but when you can see it either way, the ending feels like a letdown -- like Green wasn't sure how to finish, so he let us complete it for him. It ultimately doesn't matter. The performances are so strong that they carry <i>All the Real Girls</i> regardless of its flaws. They make you feel something in every scene, which is very rare. It's only when we lose focus on the romance between Paul and Noel that the film starts to drag. It's an unfocused film in general, but at least for most of the time, it knows which characters deserve to be the center of attention. A film like this one leans on its actors and the emotions they generate; this is one that's successful in doing so. <i>All the Real Girls</i>, David Gordon Green's second feature film, is a large success. He seems to give minimal direction in regards to his actors, allowing them to go about each scene as if they were involved in it in real life. This allows for a film that feels natural and very real. When the emotions run high, we feel like we're there every step of the way. When it loses focus of the leading romance, it does start to drag a bit, but because of how much we care about the main characters, it is absolutely worth a watch.

An honest and raw romance that doesn't play out in the traditional way. We're given snippets of time between these characters which works well rather than being given all the details in a chronological form. The two leads have an amazing chemistry and the relationship feels innocent and believable. I enjoyed it.

The final act goes a little off course, but it manages to find itself in the end. The lack of any real plot I feel actually helps what the film ultimately becomes in my mind.

While I would easily rate this among the best films of all time, it seems to me that as clearly as it spoke to me personally, it meant not quite as much to other viewers. Still, I believe that in time this film will gain in reputation and importance, even though the director has reduced himself to directing marginal comedies

Hurts a little in my gut.

Refreshing as far as love stories go...a serious one this..not the usual romcom and very realistic. Good performances

When it comes to storytelling (or songwriting for that matter) love is probably the most over-utilized jumping off point. It's to be expected. So many of us spend so much of our time longing for it or working towards it or doing our best to maintain it. The stakes of losing love are high enough as to almost necessitate injecting it into a story whenever you can. It's the most basic tale we can tell. What has manifested then is a genre that uses love as a starting point while spending much more time exploring it's minutiae. And so, All the Real Girls. Paul (Paul Schneider) is a small-town mechanic with no direction and little motivation. He's a sexual conquistador and along with his best friend Tip (Shea Whigham), has bested most of the town's female population. And everything stays the same and Paul, at the onset of his twenties, is just a bit lost. When Tip's younger sister Noel (Zooey Deschanel) returns home from school, she soon becomes the next step for Paul. At first, their love grows easily and in bursts, and Noel remains a virgin because that's what love is, or respect. Of course though, things get complicated and love gets tested. Paul and Noel find themselves dealing with grown-up problems and are forced to determine exactly how prepared they are for the hazards of life and love. Essentially this is a story about a guy realizing how much harder love is than sex. Harder to find, harder to navigate, and so on. Paul's motivation has changed so drastically and so suddenly, even he isn't sure about his destination. And Noel is enigmatic and perfect for the guy he imagines himself to be, if not now, someday. The love story in this film is intriguing because it is simultaneously effortless and a struggle. Aside from a mild "little sister" conflict between Paul and Tip that never really has legs, this young couple floats along beautifully without any real obstacles. That is, until they get in their own way. Noel's immaturity and Paul's pride serve as the tallest hurdles in this story, and nobody can keep them from themselves as well as each other. David Gordon Green is hard at work in this film. His approach to storytelling here is to construct with pieces of the whole, letting the gaps remain unseen and unconsidered. Time comes in bursts, a day in minutes, a week in seconds. We catch only minute glimpses of Paul and Noel's courtship, and somehow this is even more intimate than the alternative. It could be simply that we are so used to seeing a traditional love story unfold traditionally, that the contrast is that much more conspicuous. What might allow this to go deeper though is how organically the relationship builds. Without letting it get away from him, David Gordon Green is able to establish a structure that shows us not only the key moments, but the minor ones as well, the ones that reveal a personal connection as the ongoing process it must be. It's an enchantingly effective maneuver and here, the potential of the result far outweighs the risk. The character of Noel may be the only element of the story that catches. Her dramatic leap into the world of consequences seems a bit sudden and leaves us not only shell-shocked, but unsure of what was once a constant. Gasp moments can be necessary and do nothing if not move a story forward. Still, this hinges on removing any element of doubt regarding what a character is capable of doing or not doing. Perhaps that element of doubt still exists here, and unfortunately, it weakens the character of Noel. But All the Real Girls still flourishes. It's a fitful love story that entwines itself with small town sensitivity and the cloudy beauty of the Midwest. While emotional journeys are abundant in film, this somehow breathes with a realism not nearly so plentiful, and it is in this that the story stays visible. Paul and Noel are important because they are sincere, and it is their reality that keeps the love story real.

Up there with Elia Kazan's splendour in the grass, an examination on the insanity of young love/lust.