DVD Review | All The Real Girls
Reviewed by: Brian Orndorf

“All The Real Girls” is a story of love. Love that electrifies the body, confuses the senses, and takes a lifetime to get over when it is gone. This is a story about how genuine affection fits into new relationships, and growing so strong, it destroys everything in its path.

Paul (Paul Schneider, “George Washington”) is the local lothario of his small town, which is centered around a local textile mill. Having exhausted the supply of women in the town, the dim Paul falls for Noel (Zooey Deschanel, “Almost Famous,” and as sharp and sweet as ever), a young girl back home after having graduated from boarding school. Noel doesn’t know much about love or the world around her, and she responds immediately to Paul’s affections, much to the chagrin of her brother, Tip (Shea Whigham), who knows all too well Paul’s past sexual exploits. Paul finds himself falling hard for Noel, and is forced to confront the rest of his life when the relationship begins to jeopardize those who care about him the most.

“Girls” is the second film from writer/director David Gordon Green, the filmmaker behind the hugely lauded, but personally loathed 2000 experiment, “George Washington.” Green is an instinctive filmmaker, encouraging improvisation and method acting from his actors, and picturesque cinematography from his camerapeople. Green isn’t as confrontational as similar filmmaker Harmony Korine (“Gummo“), though they both share an insatiable lust for abstract imagery and realism at all costs. “Washington” was a cinematic nightmare; a rambling, poorly rendered, and often nonsensical film that climaxed with one character gleefully sharing his ability to curl his tongue. “Real Girls” is a monumental step up for Green, here writing himself an honest-to-god story with actors capable of great things. That’s not to say “Real Girls” doesn’t have its rambling moments of indulgence because, most surely, it does. Green just pushes these tendencies to the back burner, focusing on drama in place of kooky.

The spineless construction found in “Washington” has been replaced with a tender tale of new love. Green captures the warm moments of romantic trepidation perfectly, avoiding most clichés and artificial feelings. One scene, in particular, truly underscores the feelings Green is attempting to convey: as Noel and Paul begin to see each other a bit more seriously, and sex is brought into the equation, the two spend an afternoon questioning their respective friends on how love should be, and request tips to make it more enriching. Outside of being completely sweet in nature, the scene is staggeringly real, trumping all the recent relationship motion pictures that find the need to have a pop song or a formulaic meet cute do the romantic leg work for them.

While the picture does reach occasional, unprofessional levels of dramatic hysteria usually found in the average high schooler’s freshman poetry book, “Real Girls” is an affectionate, honest film that is trying to bat away artifice while developing truth. It isn’t easy to watch, but if you’ve ever been in a romantic entanglement, “Real Girls” is as close to mirroring that period of attraction as you’ll find this year.

“All The Real Girls” is presented in widescreen, digitally mastered anamorphic video. 2.35:1 ratio.

“Girls” is presented in English 5.1 (Dolby Digital).

-“Improv and Ensemble: The Evolution of a Film” is a 20 minute featurette on the improvisational aspect to the “Real Girls” production. It also details the tight friendships found on the set, with many crew members coming from the “George Washington” production.

-One deleted scene.

-A feature length commentary by Paul Schneider and David Gordon Green. Sadly, these two intelligent young men fall into the common “play-by-play” trap of commentary, repeatedly underlining the events on-screen, without providing much insight to the production. Green and Schneider are likable fellows, but there is an underlying arrogance to their insights, often comparing their film to the masterworks of the 1960s French New Wave movement. Not quite, gentlemen.

-A theatrical trailer is provided.

Film -------- 9/10

DVD ------- 7/10