Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A group of children, in a depressed small town, band together to cover up a tragic mistake one summer.The use of an amateur cast gets us, the audience, into a mindset where this could be a real small town. Indeed, because they are not actors, they probably "act" more naturally in certain circumstances.I am not going to attempt a thorough review here, because I think there is much that can be said and I do not want to say anything without deeper thought. Clearly a race aspect exists, as does a class aspect. There is some discussion of who or what a hero can be.And then, how does this film relate to the 1960s' Clu Gulager film? There is much to consider.

Even though GEORGE WASHINGTON lacks the star power of the Reel 13 Indies of late (IMAGINARY HEROES, SUNSHINE STATE), it's still a high profile independent film. It's legendary in the industry as the first film from indie auteur David Gordon Green. It also already has its own Criterion Collection Edition on DVD, so Channel 13 can hardly claim to have made a discovery here.As disappointing as it is that Reel 13 has gone away from bringing us films that are new to us (though not that many of them were very good), you have to acknowledge that at the very least, we get an independent film that is wonderfully cinematic and well-crafted. David Gordon Green has a pretty simple formula – not a great deal of extraneous camera movement, realistic characters and scenes that are lyrically cut together with beautifully photographed landscapes. There is a certain poetry to his work that is all his own – a style that he worked to even greater impact with his follow-up film ALL THE REAL GIRLS.As similar as the feel of GEORGE WASHINGTON is to that film, it's narrative is quite different and deals with a handful of young kids in a small, poor town somewhere in the South (Arkansas? NC?) as they deal with tragedy and the unstoppable nature of growing up. The kids, whom I suspect are all untrained actors, are all quite good, albeit playing characters that are perhaps more mature than their respective ages suggest. That aspect, along with the verisimilitude and honesty of the scenes, reminds me a lot of Peter Sollett's work. Not as much RAISING VICTOR VARGAS (which airs on Reel 13 in May) than the short it was based on – FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING – only Green accomplishes a similar effect without a hand-held camera.There a couple of nitpicky things that keeps GEORGE WASHINGTON from being as effective as the previously mentioned ALL THE REAL GIRLS. For starters, it's a little slow and hard to hear at times. Paul Schneider, who is outstanding in a much more significant role in REAL GIRLS, is more of a distraction here than an asset. His character, ostensibly intended for comic relief, is like a sixth toe on one foot – it doesn't stop you from walking normally, but it's really unnecessary. I also felt the voice-over was also extraneous – as if Green didn't trust us to comprehend his themes. The biggest issue I had with the film, though, is the surreal turn it takes in its last twenty minutes or so. Without giving too much away, it relates to changes in the main kid character, which are personified by a radical shift in wardrobe. While I see the overarching purpose of the choice – to explicate how the character deals with some of his misfortunes – it is a major shift in tone for the piece and stands out like a sore thumb against the quiet beauty of the rest of the film.Still and all, beggars can't be choosers and having sat through some very questionable indie films over the last few months, GEORGE WASHINGTON is a very welcome change.(For more information on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org)

Don't look for a simple, linear plot line or resolutions to what you think are the problems. "George Washington" is the offspring of "Gummo" and "Stand by Me", and a very distant relative to "Eraserhead" (but with a soul). The dialog is often beyond the age, character, and scope of the kids depicted (similar to "Brick"), which can be disconcerting, yet, when suspending disbelief, remained interesting. The scoring is dark and moody – and seldom lets up. On occasion, the lack of actor training can be seen in the kids, but for the most part they do a good job. The locations are full of dying and dead culture – rich, textural, beautiful crumbling Industrial Revolution. This is a ponderous, sometimes overly artful film that is none the less worth seeing and considering afterwards. It has things to say – and you're expected to use your own mind.

George Washington (2001) ****David Gordon Green's first film, 'George Washington' is a film about people stuck in a small town in a summer that will be like none other before, or after it. There are kids, and there are grown ups. Some of the kids want nothing more than to be kids; some of the kids want nothing more than to be grown up; and some of the adults want nothing more than to feel like kids again.The kids wander around aimlessly. Messing about, having fun, at least as much fun as they can in such a place. They try to steal a car. Not because they are necessarily bad, but because what else is there to do. They place with dirt, and throw random objects, and one girl begins to write on a wall with feces. Myself growing up in a small town I can tell you things that happen in this movie are in no way unrealistic. I did not grow up in the poverty which these kids do, but I grew up with the same sense of boredom. That boredom when your mother makes you go outside and find something else to do, forbidding you to watch the TV or play video games. The adults are equally bored: they sit around talking about random things and some of them go out of their way to mess around with the kids.There could have been about 10 different straight on plot lines in this movie, but instead the movie just goes where it will and lets you experience all the things that these kids will during that summer. After all it is only fitting since life does not go in one direction without detours. There is death; a saved life; a search for heroes. But none of these things are overly important. This is about the journey these people go through over the course of a summer.The voice over, done by Candace Evanofski playing Nasia, obviously draws a lot of inspiration from Terrence Malick's 'Days of Heaven.' Indeed the whole film draws heavily from Malick's films. Green readily admits his admiration of Malick, and lucky him, he got to work with him on his latest movie 'Undertow.' The actors are all fantastic. But then really they are not acting. These are not actors, they are people being people. It works here and makes everything seem even more real.In the title, I called this movie quirky. I'm starting to think that it might be the wrong word. I perhaps just should have left it at 'strangly real.' First impression is this is quirky, but thinking more about it just seems a very real picture of real people who act quirky by definition. Trying to pick this movie apart is like trying to chop down a tree with a spoon. I think its best to leave it at this: The movie is a fantastically real portrait of small town boredom; it's fantastically shot with beautiful cinematography; the characters are real; and the movie is wonderfully touching. This is a fantastic film here, and one of the better directorial debuts. George Washington is one of those under-looked and under-appreciated gems.4/4