David Gordon Green: Undertow (2004)

[arsaib4]

I found George Washington a peculiar effort also, but the kind which makes one excited about what's next! Some have spoken against the fact that it leaves too much to contemplate for the viewer without establishing any parameters for them to do so and that's not an invalid point, however, how often do you see that in American Cinema. The film is nicely complemented by the lucid camerawork and its characters, whether white or black, simply blend into the background. But even after studying the film from every angle, it still comes off as a collage of beautiful sequences which only looks good from afar.

David Gordon Green certainly delivers with his next I believe, with All the Real Girls, and I think we have a disagreement here. I didn't exactly see the film recently so I'm gonna do my best with specific detail. I thought the performance by Zooey Deschanel was award-worthy. Originally seen as a naiveté -along with what Paul Schneider’s character sees- her portrayal of entering "womanhood" is with a certain authority. We later see her being appreciated for her true worth. Deschanel's Noel moves back from a bigger city so we don't see the same mannerisms that we see in other girls and she's hasn't done enough films to be an "indie pinup queen."

One the other hand Paul Schneider's performance leaves much to be desired; he's a lesser actor than Deschanel and it clearly shows. Although I wasn't expecting his character to be similar to his friend and Deschanel's brother - the more masculine, rugged, slightly dangerous (the kind Green apparently has in Undertow according to you) - but I didn't buy him as a womanizer either or someone who would be best friends with her brother. I can't imagine what a better actor would've done with some of the sequences in the film which demanded him to act after the realization that Deschanel has a certain authority over him and he's powerless to do anything about it (People who have been in love know exactly what I’m talking about). The most brilliant of those sequences occurs after Paul finds out that Noel has lost her virginity in a one-night-stand to someone she doesn't even know and the exchange between the two is untamely ferocious. It's one of the most pure and honest sequences I’ve seen in recent films and it deserves to be ranked with the best of Pialat, who was a master of creating such emotional set-pieces.

The film however is less than perfect, especially when it doesn't have the two of them together. The dialogue between Paul and his mother played by Patricia Clarkson (at her most annoying) is contrived and the whole clown-business doesn't belong in this film. The film is an emotional tug of war that truly captures the feeling of being in love and when at it's best, it's as exhilarating as Linklater's Sunrise and Sunset. I'm a bit surprised that you used the words "rural retards," apparently because of the pace the film and its characters inhabit as they live with a certain rhythm, which belongs to a certain part of this country.

While other "indie auteurs" are sticking with their usual tricks and turns (plot contrivances, excessive dialogue etc,.) Gordon Green has enough confidence in himself to leave his characters somewhere out there in their lonesome, simply staring at each other.