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
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