“All the Real Girls”
Sony Pictures Classics
Written and directed by David Gordon Green
Produced by Jean Doumanian and Lisa Muskat
Starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson, Shea Whigham, Benjamin Mouton, Maurice Compte, Danny McBride, Bartow Church and Maya Ling Pruitt
Rated R
Opens a week from Friday at the Broadway
(out of four)

Out of nowhere, David Gordon Green has emerged as one of the most unique young voices in modern cinema. The writer/director, who turned 28 last week, has shown a poetic lyricism and a deep understanding of human relationships in his brief career—“All the Real Girls” is only his second film.

In the film, he creates a stirring story about the joys of being in love and the pain that comes with placing joy in someone’s feelings for you. The film makes at least 90 percent of filmed romances look trite and shallow because it tells the truth.

Green’s biggest inspiration is Terrence Malick, who appeared in the ’70s and made films with long, meditative takes like “Badlands” (1973) and “Days of Heaven” (1978), his masterpiece, then disappeared for 20 years before making “The Thin Red Line” in 1998. Hopefully we'll hear from Green again sooner than that.

Malick's impression was clear when Green made his masterful debut, “George Washington,” and can be seen again in “All the Real Girls,” which has a story that might attract a wider audience. This isn’t meant to paint Green as a copy cat—he’s an original filmmaker who takes his inspiration from an untapped source.

Paul Schneider, who co-wrote the story, stars as Paul, a notorious womanizer in a small Georgia town who falls in love with his best friend’s little sister, Noel (Zooey Deschanel). The film opens with a long take of a romantic kissing scene in which she tells him what to do while he shows concern about her brother, Tip (Shea Whigham), finding out.

Tip, also a womanizer, doesn't like the idea of his friend, who acts like him, pulling anything funny with his sister, but Paul and Noel find themselves too in love to stay away from each other. Tip has to fight or learn to accept this, while Paul has to decide if he wants to hurt his best friend.

Noel is 18 and just got out of boarding school. She’s still a virgin and Paul doesn’t want to sleep with her as quickly as he did with all the other women in town.

While some films might use this as the basis for the entire plot, it’s only the beginning of “All the Real Girls,” which thoroughly follows its relationship, showing what the characters learn and how they change long. It goes far beyond where the credits would have rolled in a standard romantic film.

A subplot involves Paul’s mother (Patricia Clarkson), who works as a clown in a local hospital and requires Paul’s help much of the time. Clarkson (“Far From Heaven”) makes her emotions clear, and this part of the story shows aspects of maturity that Paul still hasn’t come around to yet.

The dialogue isn’t the cutesy banter that most films offer, but authentic speech that breathes emotion and concern into the characters.

Since the story feels so real, Green makes the pain his characters feel stronger. When they experience a tragedy that neither of them understand, they speak out of frustration, confusion and anger. Green’s scene is nothing like it would be if anybody else directed it. The hurt can be felt through every frame.

At other times, the film is lighter and happier, but it always comes across as real, even though the film is shot in a different style from most films. Tim Orr’s camera lingers on the characters, moving fluidly and/or remaining static to capture the beauty of the scene. The colors and the subjects are perfect and create a perfect atmosphere for real characters in a real setting to experience life.
jeremy@red-mag.com