seandavidhasaknife Ever gone to a non-chain coffee shop & saw some ridiculous hipster using a typewriter & wondered what he/she is working on? This is it. Terrible dialogue that a horrible hipster was patting his/herself on the back about. Danny McBride is in it, so that's cool.

Wuchak If you've seen 2007's "Snow Angels" or 2004's "Undertow" you'd know that David Gordon Green is a filmmaker of the highest caliber. "Snow Angels" is easily one of the greatest dramas ever filmed and "Undertow" is a mesmerizing piece of Southern Gothic, even while its point remains elusive. This explains why I was geared-up for a great love story/drama with 2003's "All the Real Girls," which was written & directed by Green.Alas, it was not to be. "All the Real Girls" is a huge disappointment.Understand that I love indie flicks because they're generally more creative and daring than their their Hollywood cardboard cut-out counterparts. I prefer creative, unique and daring cinema to formulaic, predictable mainstream drek. But "All the Real Girls" has all the marks of an indie flick gone horribly wrong -- tedious melodrama, uninteresting characters, horrible dialogue that's trying too hard to be "realistic" and artful. I once heard someone say that the greatest sin in cinema is to be boring and I agree. Well, "All the Real Girls" transgresses big time.The only reasons I'm not giving it less than 3 Stars are because the cinematography and locations are spectacular. The film was shot in the Asheville, Marshall & Cherokee regions of Western North Carolina. Plus the actors do a fine job (e.g. Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel & Patricia Clarkson) with Shea Whigham standing out as Tip, the main girl's brother who doesn't want Schneider's character taking advantage of his sister, but that angle goes nowhere. The problem wasn't the actors but rather the dull story and totally stoo-pid dialogue they got saddled with. A good example is when Schneider and Zooey are hanging out in a bowling alley, apparently near closing time because I didn't see or hear another soul, when Schneider says he wants to dance but doesn't want her to see him. So she turns around and he goes into some goofy dance antics. It's a useless, eye-rolling scene, but -- believe it or not -- it's better than the bulk of the dreadfully tedious scenes in the film.The story, on the surface, could've been interesting: A small town (supposed) Casanova falls for a young virgin just back from boarding school. She breaks his heart and he has to deal with it. (Hey, you reap what you sow, sucka). This is a theme we all can relate to one way or another, but it all comes across as a big meaningless zero.If you enjoyed "Snow Angels" and "Undertow" don't expect the same greatness here.GRADE: D+

Martin Bradley Nothing very much happens in "All the real girls". Life, such as it is in this sleepy American backwater, goes by but very, very slowly. In itself that's just fine; movies don't have to be 'about' anything. This is David Gordon Green's follow-up to his highly acclaimed "George Washington", (which I haven't seen), and on the strength of this film, if he owes a debt to anyone, it's to Terrence Mallick.The central characters are Paul, (a sexy Paul Schneider), and Noel, (an equally sexy Zooey Deschanel), and to say they are pretty vacant is to credit them with an intelligence they don't have. (This is a film where people spout 'profundities' that they get out of books, even if you can't imagine any of them ever picking up a book). He's the unlikely town Romeo and she's the sister of his best friend and we have to presume they are in love.Green wrote the film from a story he and Schneider devised but it feels improvised. The problem is neither Paul or Noel are good company, nor is anyone else. This is an indie American art-movie filled with its own importance, visually striking in that Terrence Mallick way but something of a slog to sit through. I, for one, was glad when it was over.

samkan Lots and lots and lots of movies deal with romance, often done with varied degrees of humor and/or nostalgia. Almost always such flicks are made of falling-in-love conflict resolved by physical and/or emotional consummation. Some of these movies earn the tag "girl" or "chik" movies.Few films successfully conveys a male's pain, upheaval, of romantic love better than this one. Rather than remind a guy of how dumb, blind, etc., he was when young, ATRG reminds you how authentic the feelings felt when, usually about mid 20's, youthful sexual pursuit gives way to the first tinglings of remorse about the past mixed with vague anxiety about the future. In this respect, rather than viewing a guy's first encounter with real love from a vantage point of wisdom, ATRG put me back in the ring when I was about 27.I remember driving back to my apartment almost thirty years ago after a Saturday night one-nighter. I remember thinking to myself, almost out loud, "Wow that was pretty stupid, wasn't it." When I got to my apartment I saw people going to church. I'm not religious at all but I thought to myself, "You know, pal, there's something a lot more to life than going out to be a weekend hero." ATRG deals with this point in a guy's life. Noel/Zooey's character is done just well enough to serve as "Everygirl". In some form or manner, a guy has heard all of Noel's dialog before. Its great to revisit the moments when we guys first started to listen to women and sense life's rhythms.PS/This guy makes great films. Check out GEORGE WASHINGTON and SNOW ANGELS.