David Gordon Green Overview

In a time when much of American Independent Cinema falls on a spectrum with self-satisfied irony on one end and unabashed sentimentality on the other, David Gordon Green defies type. Orienting from the mantra “If I ever make anything clever, you... [more]

In a time when much of American Independent Cinema falls on a spectrum with self-satisfied irony on one end and unabashed sentimentality on the other, David Gordon Green defies type. Orienting from the mantra “If I ever make anything clever, you can shoot me,” Green rose to prominence with emotionally sincere films grounded in simple narratives and decidedly American landscapes. Growing up on Carroll Ballard, Peter Greenaway, Robert Altman, and Terrence Malick, Green developed his cinephilia early and took to filming his Arkansan surroundings on Super-8. With GEORGE WASHINGTON (2000), Green articulated an aesthetic and temporal sensibility—namely a meandering, Malickian penchant for beauty—which revealed the most enduring of his childhood filmic influences and set him apart from lesser filmmakers of the genre. As with GEORGE WASHINGTON, in ALL THE REAL GIRLS (2003) Green’s camera takes time with the dynamism of wind or the slumber of railroad tracks. With this film Green also continues his adoration of Southern cultural, physical, and linguistic landscapes. His characters speak about life and death with poetic, humble voices while strolling through heat-stroked playgrounds or overgrown trailer parks. One might accuse these characters of cliché if it weren’t for their sincerity and simplicity of purpose. Green’s next films, UNDERTOW (2004) and SNOW ANGELS (2007), also work with poetic terms and a strong commitment to place (though their efforts appear a bit more labored) while PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008), a pot comedy, breaks completely with his style and content, save for a few drifting cameras and one utterly endearing pothead. [show less]