DVD Review: All The Real Girls (D)

All The Real Girls (2003)
Directed by David Gordon Green
Starring Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson and Shea Whigham
MPAA: R
Grade: D

Review by Scott Standish

All the Real Girls has landed some mighty praise from highly regarded critics. They must have a higher tolerance for mediocre acting than I do.

This small film (in about every way) is a simple love triangle: Paul (Paul Schneider) has slept with just about every girl in his small town. He's kind of a jerk, but when he falls for his best friend's sister Noel, he decides to "clean up his act" and be a good man for once. No cheating, no lying, this time he's going to be a decent man. However, his best friend doesn't fall for his line and doesn't want his friend, the king of all users, seeing his sister. Noel (Zooey Deschanel) falls for him (of course), but she's too young to know better and before long, she cheats on him anyway.

The acting is barely tolerable in All The Real Girls (is everyone on ludes in this picture?) and the script plods along at a frustrating pace. Maybe I missed something here, but All The Real Girls is a boring independent film with zero juice.

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