All the Real Girls

This is the 2nd movie by David Gordon Green, his first was George Washington, which I loved. All... has a pretty simple plot, boy meets girl, etc. but the execution is great. I don't know if it's the film stock he uses or filters or what, but the colours in his movies are very cool and distinctive. There are also some interesting insert shots of natural scenes and decayed southern towns. It's a very honest, un-Hollywood depiction of life in small town America. And aside from that, one of the great indie actresses, Zooey Deschanel, is the female lead, and she is wonderful. 

The commentary track is one of the best I've heard. They explained how the actors dealt with certain situations: one guy stayed up for 2 days and got drunk to do a scene where he had to look all haggard, one guy who had quit drinking in real life got super drunk to do a scene in a bar, Zooey got her haircut instead of wearing a wig when her character got her haircut. In writing that last sentence, I realize those things might sound trivial, but actors never actually do those things, it is always fake. Acting as it were. The movie was written by the director and the male lead. They had written the female lead, but they cast Zooey because she had all sorts of ideas for the part. So the movie felt very real, the guys wrote the guy parts and she did the girl part. Finally, there was just a ton of name checking of influences, and hearing the list made me realize why I like the movie so much: Sigur Ros; Neil Young; Werner Hertzog; Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; Dutch Harbor, Alaska; the Last Picture Show; Time Bandits; and Quick Change, specifically the "crying on the inside" clown bit. Highly Recommended.