Movie Loner

It’s refreshing when filmmakers get it right. Make a comedy you should have some genuine laughs. A horror flick better include a few good scares. Movies about young love are tricky; they’re often cliche-filled melodramas wrapped in happy-endings with bows on top. Love isn’t that simple. Writer/Director David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls poetically shows us love is great, love is special, and love is damn confusing.

Paul is a twenty-something small town slacker known for his womanizing ways. He hangs with his buddies Tip, Bo, and Bust-Ass (yeah, that’s his name!). Together they fix old cars and swap tales of sexual conquests. Then Paul meets Noel, the younger sister of best friend Tip. The virginal Noel just returned home after years away at boarding school. What begins as friendship quickly evolves. Innocent Noel falls for reckless Paul, and Paul feels something foreign to him. Love.

Thrown by his feelings, Paul seeks advice from his mom and uncle, who both warn him to be careful. He listens but can’t help but confess to Noel how deeply he cares for her. Noel decides to trust Paul with her heart. However, Noel’s weekend trip to the lake threatens irreparable damage to her relationship with Paul. Trusting someone comes at a price. Paul learns this lesson the hard way.

David Gordon Green understands the film medium. He shoots the bucolic North Carolina landscapes with a keen, caring eye. He also writes real characters, funny yet flawed. A scene between Paul and Tip, where Tip admits to his glaring immaturity, is quite poignant. High praise to Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel for putting the exact right amount of emotion into their portrayals of Paul and Noel. Their chemistry makes the movie. Remember the name David Gordon Green. He gets it.