David Gordon Green

You Should Know


Born in Arkansas, raised in Texas, and film schooled at the North Carolina School of the Arts, young director David Gordon Green has a firm grasp of Southern culture. His slow-paced films have drawn comparisons to Terrence Malick, who actually helped produce Green's 2004 gothic thriller Undertow. Green's films exhibit the same keen eye for location as Malick's while being more character driven. Green's first film, George Washington, was shot during a Winston-Salem, North Carolina summer in 1999, and its cast consists of young untrained actors discovered at YMCA casting calls. The film went on to enjoy film festival success and it secured a multidude of awards. He followed his successful debut with a quirky love story entitled All The Real Girls, which stars Green's college pal and budding actor Paul Schneider and is set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The film's ultra-awkward dialog, no-ambition characters, and portrayal of strange love on the outskirts of society made it a sort of anti-Hollywood love story. Characters miscommunicate, and while they feel powerful human emotions, they're too inarticulate to ever introspectively describe them. It's one of those polarizing films that will either dazzle you or piss you off, and that's when you know the director's onto something. Since 2003, Green has made Undertow, a solid southern gothic tale of brothers running from their father's killer, this year's Snow Angels, which is touring the festival circuit and stars Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell, and a Seth Rogan-penned action/comedy entitled The Pineapple Express that should see daylight sometime next year.

Here are a few excellent tracks from the moody All The Real Girls soundtrack. -- Capt. Obvious

Listen:
MP3: Bonnie Prince Billy - Even If Love
MP3: Sparklehorse - Sea Of Teeth
MP3: The Promise Ring - Say Goodbye Good

Tags: David Gordon Green, All The Real Girls, Snow Angels, George Washington, Undertow