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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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All the Real Girls
Sony Pictures Classics
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.
90
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.
90
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.
90
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Remarkable for its genuine, unpretentious lyricism.
90
Newsweek
David Ansen
The best movie of the last 20 years about young people in love is 1989’s.
90
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.
90
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.
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The verdict? Green passes with flying colours -- his is a huge and hugely impressive talent.
80
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.
80
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.
75
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.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Wandering, atmospheric, episodic yet strangely appealing story of love.
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
Girls isn't fabulous, but you do feel its characters really have connected.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Precious without ever being cloying, All the Real Girls is a wise, delicate and immensely touching romance.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Smartly acted, achingly simple love story.
75
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
It's the little things that resonate in this tender and sincere tale of first love.
75
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.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Green unquestionably has a rare, intermittent knack for rapture.
75
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.
75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
A small movie about big emotions, with Green capturing the rush of love and sting of heartbreak with great vividness.
70
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.
70
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.
70
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.
70
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.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Lurches toward an offbeat honesty but it also very nearly crashes in its quirkiness.
60
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.
50
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.
50
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.
50
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.
50
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
There’s a ravishing aliveness to the spacious imagery; at least the clichés have room to roam free.
50
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.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The main characters are unremarkable, and most of the acting is dull.
40
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.
40
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.
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