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All the Real Girls
Sony Pictures Classics


8.4

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexuality

Starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson, Benjamin Mouton, Maurice Compte, Danny McBride, and Shea Whigham

A small-town Romeo falls in love with his best friend's little sister.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	David Gordon Green Paul Schneider (story)
DIRECTED BY:	David Gordon Green
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 19, 2003 Video: August 19, 2003 Theatrical: February 14, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	108 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Winner, Special Jury Prize "for artistic merit and emotional truth" (tie) and Special Jury Performance Prize (Clarkson), 2003 Sundance Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It’s a movie made of moments, the antithesis of "plot-driven," but the sum of these moments is magnificent, the culmination of so many elements: acting, scripting, score (by locals Michael Linnen and David Wingo), and cinematography.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

David Gordon Green's second film, is too subtle and perceptive, and knows too much about human nature, to treat their lack of sexual synchronicity as if it supplies a plot.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's thrillingly original, lyrical, and wise, and the filmmaker conveys the mutable intensity of young love with the authoritative originality of an important filmmaker.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie may take five extra minutes to end and could do with one less sunset but . . . other than that it's damned near perfect.

Chicago Reader Staff (not credited)

This is a lyrical heartbreaker that skirts most love-story cliches and is brave enough to be as inconclusive as the characters.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Remarkable for its genuine, unpretentious lyricism.

Newsweek David Ansen

The best movie of the last 20 years about young people in love is 1989’s.

Time Richard Corliss

Green shoots his groping lovers in the art-film style -- long takes, static frame -- but his tone isn't at all minimalist; it's achingly, breathtakingly romantic, like the old Hollywood love stories his kids have never seen.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Like his (David Gordon Green's) debut feature of three years ago, the exquisite "George Washington," this new one has my heart, and I think it will have yours.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The verdict? Green passes with flying colours -- his is a huge and hugely impressive talent.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Green treats his people with affectionate knowledge, untinged with patronizing. And he sees them in ways that are free of cinematic cliché.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's a movie of deft impressions and telling human moments. Whether or not those impressions and moments add up to anything is almost beside the point.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The performers are tremendous, particularly Deschanel, who can travel to the end of an emotional tether and then suggest the mysteries of change and growth that lie beyond.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Wandering, atmospheric, episodic yet strangely appealing story of love.

USA Today Mike Clark

Girls isn't fabulous, but you do feel its characters really have connected.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Precious without ever being cloying, All the Real Girls is a wise, delicate and immensely touching romance.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Smartly acted, achingly simple love story.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

It's the little things that resonate in this tender and sincere tale of first love.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Slow moving and low key, and, when the final credits roll, you feel like you have spent nearly two hours in the company of a few real people, not constructs of a writer's imagination.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Green unquestionably has a rare, intermittent knack for rapture.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A movie that eliminates Hollywood gloss and pop cliches -- and in their place offers an honest look at young love and its pitfalls.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A small movie about big emotions, with Green capturing the rush of love and sting of heartbreak with great vividness.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Deschanel and Schneider--who both give rich, funny performances--and everyone around them have inner lives that don't always translate into words. When they speak, it's usually in dialogue halfway between poetry and inarticulate fumbling.

LA Weekly John Powers

Green is essentially a poet of moods rather than a teller of tales, and he adorns the movie with stylistic touches influenced by Terrence Malick.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is very beautiful, with a shambling pace and slow fade-ins and fade-outs; and when it works there's a tension between its characters' scuffling small-talk and its majestically ruined rural setting.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's a sad love story that's insightful at its core and indulgent around the edges, a film whose instincts are impeccable when focusing on that romance but less than compelling when it wanders elsewhere.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Lurches toward an offbeat honesty but it also very nearly crashes in its quirkiness.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The sad thing about All the Real Girls is that Green seems more in love with his perceived unconventionality than he does with his characters. If that's not a town without pity, I don't know what is.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The central relationship here is curious but not engaging, except for the pleasure of watching Deschanel, making All the Real Girls just a filmmaker's exercise in impressionistic style and mood.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

This earnest love story is borderline insufferable, and yet there are moments that, in their bold incoherence, have a startling emotional truth.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director David Gordon Green has created some fresh, penetrating, beautifully drawn scenes of one-on-one intimacy…But some of what surrounds these interludes is variously misguided, fuzzy and borderline pretentious.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

There’s a ravishing aliveness to the spacious imagery; at least the clichés have room to roam free.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

Aspires to a backwoods North Carolina Woody Allen quality that it often comes close to achieving. But sadly it’s just never quite funny, touching or insightful enough.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The main characters are unremarkable, and most of the acting is dull.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The always charming Deschanel manages to rise above most of the film's logy pretensions, but the usually excellent Clarkson isn't so lucky.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Sadly, the men here come across as whiny and infantile, and Green is dangerously keen to stress their retardation. [17 & 24 2003, p.204]

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Megan B. gave it a 9:
I'm sure it wasn't perfect, but I believe it was the imperfections that made it beautiful. The dialogue was so realistic, it was painful at times.

Marc D. gave it a 10:
A beautiful film which expresses complex and genuine emotions in such an elegant way. What an excellent recommendation, Carrie. Thank you!

D Hickman gave it a 10:
Paul Scheider is a fantastic actor.

Brian F. gave it a 9:
This was a cinematically beautiful and emotionally potent film. At least as good as George Washington. The ending was wondeful. The reviewer below obviously suffers from a stale and not very open mind.

Sara gave it a 10:
By the way, in spite of other reviews, I loved the ending. It was perfect. This is a beautiful, touching, film.

Elliott gave it a 10:
One of the best, truest films I have ever seen. The dialogue was so gorgeous and heartfelt that on many, many occasions I was almost moved to tears. Deschenel's performance is probably the best of the year.

Robert H. gave it a 6:
I don't know why so many critics loved this movie. Deschanel is enchanting..there's no doubt about that. But so many of the other actors are doing way too much acting and too many of the scences smell of "For everything else there's Mastercard". And a pretty bad ending scene too.

All the Real Girls Sony Pictures Classics

All the Real Girls
Sony Pictures Classics