All the Real Girls

All the Real Girls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Gordon Green
Written by	David Gordon Green
Produced by	Jean Doumanian Lisa Muskat
Starring	Paul Schneider Zooey Deschanel Shea Whigham Patricia Clarkson
Cinematography	Tim Orr
Music by	Michael Linnen David Wingo
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release date	February 14 2003
Running time	108 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million
Box office	$548,712

All the Real Girls is a 2003 romantic drama film which was the second film written and directed by David Gordon Green. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2003. It stars Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Shea Whigham, Danny R. McBride, Patricia Clarkson, Maurice Compte and Benjamin Mouton. The film follows the romance between a young, small town womanizer, and his friend’s younger sister.

While the film did not do so well at the box office, it was generally well received by critics and was nominated for several awards when it was shown at film festivals in 2003.

Plot

Paul is a womanizer in his early twenties who lives in a small Southern town, where he earns a living fixing cars for his uncle. Paul still lives with his mother, Elvira, who works as a clown cheering up children at the local hospital. He 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 he's not at all known for being involved with long-term relationships; most of Paul's romances last only a few weeks, and he's slept with nearly every girl in town. Paul is beginning to reach a point where would like to lead a different life, and that feeling becomes all the more clear when he meets Noel, Tip's teenage sister who has come back home after attending a boarding school. Noel is more thoughtful and mature than the girls Paul is used to. Paul and Noel soon fall in love, but for Paul 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. However, Tip doesn't approve of Paul dating his younger sister, which leads to a rift between these longtime friends. The relationship grows more serious over time until Paul learns that Noel has cheated on him while visiting friends. While the two of them try to save the failing relationship, it never really works out even though the two of them still have obvious feelings for one another.

Box Office

All the Real Girls was not a financial success at the box office. It was made on a budget of $2,500,000 and premiered on January 19, 2003 at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on February 14, 2003 and played in six theaters, bringing in $39,714 in its opening weekend. By the time the film ended its theatrical run on July 10, 2003 it had made $549,666.

Critical reception

Broken Vessels got mostly positive reviews when it was initially released in 2003. All the Real Girls currently has a 71% rating at rottentomatos.com The film’s current rating on metacritic.com is 71 out of 100. 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 is the Rose.’ How many guys that age would have that kind of nerve today?,” giving the film a four out of four star rating.

Awards

The film was nominated for awards at several different film festivals all over the world. David Gordon Green was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize but won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival along with Patricia Clarkson for her role in the film. At the 2004 Chlotrudis Awards, All the Real Girls was nominated for Best Actress, (Zooey Deschanel), Best Cinematography (Tim Orr), Best Director (David Gordon Green), and Best Original Screenplay (David Gordon Green & Paul Schneider). Zooey Deschanel was also nominated for Best Female Lead at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards and Best Actress at the 2004 Mar del Planta Film Festival.

Cast and Crew

Actor	Role
Paul Schneider	Paul
Zooey Deschanel	Noel
Shea Whigham	Tip
Danny R. McBride	Bust-Ass
Patricia Clarkson	Elvira
Benjamin Mouton	Uncle Leland
Maurice Compte	Bo
Heather McComb	Mary-Margaret

Tagline

Love is a puzzle. These are the pieces.

External links

• Official site
• All the Real Girls at IMDb
• Template:Rogerebert
• All the Real Girls at the All Movie Guide
• Review from The Guardian