All the Real Girls
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: February 14, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
It’s a movie made of moments, the antithesis of "plot-driven," but the sum of these moments is magnificent, the culmination of so many elements: acting, scripting, score (by locals Michael Linnen and David Wingo), and cinematography. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
David Gordon Green's second film, is too subtle and perceptive, and knows too much about human nature, to treat their lack of sexual synchronicity as if it supplies a plot. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
It's thrillingly original, lyrical, and wise, and the filmmaker conveys the mutable intensity of young love with the authoritative originality of an important filmmaker. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The best movie of the last 20 years about young people in love is 1989’s. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
Green shoots his groping lovers in the art-film style -- long takes, static frame -- but his tone isn't at all minimalist; it's achingly, breathtakingly romantic, like the old Hollywood love stories his kids have never seen. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Like his (David Gordon Green's) debut feature of three years ago, the exquisite "George Washington," this new one has my heart, and I think it will have yours. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderStaff (not credited)
This is a lyrical heartbreaker that skirts most love-story cliches and is brave enough to be as inconclusive as the characters. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Remarkable for its genuine, unpretentious lyricism. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie may take five extra minutes to end and could do with one less sunset but . . . other than that it's damned near perfect. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The verdict? Green passes with flying colours -- his is a huge and hugely impressive talent. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Green treats his people with affectionate knowledge, untinged with patronizing. And he sees them in ways that are free of cinematic cliché. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's a movie of deft impressions and telling human moments. Whether or not those impressions and moments add up to anything is almost beside the point. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Green unquestionably has a rare, intermittent knack for rapture. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Slow moving and low key, and, when the final credits roll, you feel like you have spent nearly two hours in the company of a few real people, not constructs of a writer's imagination. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A movie that eliminates Hollywood gloss and pop cliches -- and in their place offers an honest look at young love and its pitfalls. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
A small movie about big emotions, with Green capturing the rush of love and sting of heartbreak with great vividness. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Precious without ever being cloying, All the Real Girls is a wise, delicate and immensely touching romance. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Smartly acted, achingly simple love story. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
It's the little things that resonate in this tender and sincere tale of first love. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Wandering, atmospheric, episodic yet strangely appealing story of love. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Girls isn't fabulous, but you do feel its characters really have connected. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The performers are tremendous, particularly Deschanel, who can travel to the end of an emotional tether and then suggest the mysteries of change and growth that lie beyond. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Deschanel and Schneider--who both give rich, funny performances--and everyone around them have inner lives that don't always translate into words. When they speak, it's usually in dialogue halfway between poetry and inarticulate fumbling. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Green is essentially a poet of moods rather than a teller of tales, and he adorns the movie with stylistic touches influenced by Terrence Malick. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's a sad love story that's insightful at its core and indulgent around the edges, a film whose instincts are impeccable when focusing on that romance but less than compelling when it wanders elsewhere. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie is very beautiful, with a shambling pace and slow fade-ins and fade-outs; and when it works there's a tension between its characters' scuffling small-talk and its majestically ruined rural setting. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Lurches toward an offbeat honesty but it also very nearly crashes in its quirkiness. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The sad thing about All the Real Girls is that Green seems more in love with his perceived unconventionality than he does with his characters. If that's not a town without pity, I don't know what is. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
There’s a ravishing aliveness to the spacious imagery; at least the clichés have room to roam free. Read full review
50
Film ThreatTim Merrill
Aspires to a backwoods North Carolina Woody Allen quality that it often comes close to achieving. But sadly it’s just never quite funny, touching or insightful enough. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The main characters are unremarkable, and most of the acting is dull. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The central relationship here is curious but not engaging, except for the pleasure of watching Deschanel, making All the Real Girls just a filmmaker's exercise in impressionistic style and mood. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This earnest love story is borderline insufferable, and yet there are moments that, in their bold incoherence, have a startling emotional truth. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Director David Gordon Green has created some fresh, penetrating, beautifully drawn scenes of one-on-one intimacy…But some of what surrounds these interludes is variously misguided, fuzzy and borderline pretentious. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The always charming Deschanel manages to rise above most of the film's logy pretensions, but the usually excellent Clarkson isn't so lucky. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Sadly, the men here come across as whiny and infantile, and Green is dangerously keen to stress their retardation. [17 & 24 2003, p.204]
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