All the Real Girls
All The Real Girls (2003): Small-town love story of a young man with a reputation for womanizing and his best friend's sister. Starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, written and directed by David Gordon Green. 
I had a free rental coupon about to expire late last week so I decided to run in and redeem it. I was amazed that I was unable to find a single dvd worth renting after two laps around the perimeter of the store. Right when I was contemplating picking up Miss Congeniality 2 (for the notoriety of it; my wife works for "Sandy's" sister), I decided to enter the center of the rentals. I'm glad I did, because I ended up with David Gorden Green's All the Real Girls. I had seen this film back in 2003 when it came out and thought it was pretty good. We were visiting Asheville, NC and had heard buzz about this NC film project (writers and many actors hail from the Tar Heel state and it was filmed in one of the nearby small towns).
When I watched it this second time I was really blown away. The first time around I loved the variety of characters (Bust-Ass, Tip, Uncle Leland) and thought they were well developed, but that was about as deep as I went. This time I really caught some of the movie's amazing lines ("I had a bad dream, you were a river and you weren't moving. You were frozen and I watched you crying") and generally strong dialogue. But beyond that I was really struck by the sense of sadness and feeling of emptiness that runs through the film (of course there's a bit of hope at the end). It's a rite of passage film with a script chockfull of understanding and honest reflection.
What I also realized this time around was the soundtrack. I was psyched to heard Will Oldham's voice opening up the film with "All These Vicious Dogs." I couldn't believe that I missed that the first time around. Other great melancholy tunes find their way behind dialogue and crystallized shots of the defunct factory town and meandering rivers; such as works by Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Sparklehorse, and The Promise Ring.
The Promise Ring - Say Goodbye Good.mp3
Explosions in the Sky - The Moon is Down.mp3 (shortened version, sorry)
I had a free rental coupon about to expire late last week so I decided to run in and redeem it. I was amazed that I was unable to find a single dvd worth renting after two laps around the perimeter of the store. Right when I was contemplating picking up Miss Congeniality 2 (for the notoriety of it; my wife works for "Sandy's" sister), I decided to enter the center of the rentals. I'm glad I did, because I ended up with David Gorden Green's All the Real Girls. I had seen this film back in 2003 when it came out and thought it was pretty good. We were visiting Asheville, NC and had heard buzz about this NC film project (writers and many actors hail from the Tar Heel state and it was filmed in one of the nearby small towns).
When I watched it this second time I was really blown away. The first time around I loved the variety of characters (Bust-Ass, Tip, Uncle Leland) and thought they were well developed, but that was about as deep as I went. This time I really caught some of the movie's amazing lines ("I had a bad dream, you were a river and you weren't moving. You were frozen and I watched you crying") and generally strong dialogue. But beyond that I was really struck by the sense of sadness and feeling of emptiness that runs through the film (of course there's a bit of hope at the end). It's a rite of passage film with a script chockfull of understanding and honest reflection.
What I also realized this time around was the soundtrack. I was psyched to heard Will Oldham's voice opening up the film with "All These Vicious Dogs." I couldn't believe that I missed that the first time around. Other great melancholy tunes find their way behind dialogue and crystallized shots of the defunct factory town and meandering rivers; such as works by Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Sparklehorse, and The Promise Ring.
The Promise Ring - Say Goodbye Good.mp3
Explosions in the Sky - The Moon is Down.mp3 (shortened version, sorry)
posted by jds @ 10/12/2005 06:27:00 PM
3 Comments:
At 9:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
One of my favorites. I'm glad that you were able to rediscover it. Be sure to check out his first movie, "George Washington". I've got "Undertow" in my netflix queue as well.
At 1:24 PM,
Flatlander said…
Good call on the Promise Ring. They've been popping up on my iPod a lot lately and been meanig to hang a post about them.
At 3:49 PM,
Unknown said…
"All the Real Girls" is one of the few movies involving Southerners that this Southerner endorses.
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