All the Real Girls

''All the Real Girls'' is a 2003 American romantic drama film written and directed by David Gordon Green and starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Shea Whigham and Patricia Clarkson. It is about the romance between a young, small-town womanizer and his best friend’s sexually inexperienced younger sister. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2003. The film was well received by critics and was nominated for several film festival awards, with Green winning a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.

Plot

A young womanizer living in a small Southern town, Paul earns a living fixing cars for his uncle. He still lives with his mother, Elvira, who works as a clown cheering up children at the local hospital.

Paul spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and self-proclaimed partner-in-crime, Tip, and their friends Bo and Bust-Ass. Among his friends, Paul has a reputation as a ladies' man, but is not at all known for being involved with long-term relationships; most of his romances last only a few weeks, and he's slept with nearly every girl in town.

Beginning to reach a point where he would like to lead a different life, this feeling becomes much clearer when Paul meets Noel. She is Tip's teenage sister, who has returned home after attending boarding school. Noel is more thoughtful and mature than the girls Paul is used to.

Paul and Noel soon fall in love, but for him this is a different sort of relationship than he's accustomed to — Noel is still a virgin, and her contemplative nature gives him a desire to be a better, stronger person,

Tip does not approve of Paul dating his younger sister, which leads to a rift between these longtime friends.

Cast

Reception

Box office

''All the Real Girls'' was given a limited release on February 14, 2003. It played in six theaters, bringing in $39,714 in its opening weekend. It grossed $579,986 on a $1 million budget.

Critical response

The film received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 71%, based on 115 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus states, "Has enough honest moments to warrant a look." On Metacritic, it has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun Times'' said “Green is 27, old enough to be jaded, but he has the soul of a romantic poet. Wordsworth, after all, was 36 when he published, ‘The Rainbow comes and goes and lovely as the Rose.’ How many guys that age would have that kind of nerve today?” He gave the film a four out of four star rating.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for awards at several different film festivals globally. Green was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and ended up winning the Special Jury Prize as did Patricia Clarkson for Outstanding Performance. Zooey Deschanel was nominated for Best Female Lead at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards and Best Actress at the 2004 Mar del Plata Film Festival.

References

External links

*
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:All The Real Girls
2003 films
2003 romantic drama films
American romantic drama films
Films shot in North Carolina
Films set in the Southern United States
Films directed by David Gordon Green
American independent films
Films produced by Jean Doumanian
2003 independent films
Films about mother–son relationships
Sony Pictures Classics films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
Sundance Film Festival award winners