All the Real Girls 2003

Set in the tiniest of towns in North Carolina, All the Real Girls tells the story of Paul (played by co-writer Paul Schneider), a decent guy whose life to date can be measured in beer cans and female conquests, and his brief, life-changing romance with Noel (Zooey Deschanel), his best friend’s little sister.

“All the Real Girls is a revelation in its ability to capture how love really feels – which is to say, like a blur, like an assemblage, like a collage of revisited moments, mixed-up feelings, and disjointed details that defy linear narrative. This fresh, stirring movie by David Gordon Green [George Washington], about a couple of young people temporarily head over heels about each other, defies linear narrative, and everybody else's idea of narrative, too. 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… If calling the movie poetic isn’t a selling point, then forget I ever said it. Just call this beauty real.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly