# George Washington (2000)

### reviewed by
Scott Renshaw

GEORGE WASHINGTON (Cowboy Booking) Starring: Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Curtis Cotton III, Damian Jewan Lee, Rachael Handy, Eddie Rouse, Paul Schneider. Screenplay: David Gordon Green. Producers: David Gordon Green, Sacha W. Mueller and Lisa Muskat. Director: David Gordon Green. MPAA Rating: Unrated (could be PG-13 for violence, adult themes) Running Time: 89 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw

In David Gordon Green's haunting feature debut GEORGE WASHINGTON, there is no real story to speak of. Set in an unnamed town in the rural American South, it's a quintessentially episodic film that follows a group of adolescents and a few token adults over several summer days. The narrator, Nasia (Candace Evanofski), is a 12-year-old African-American girl who has just broken up with her 13-year-old boyfriend Buddy (Curtis Cotton III) because she's looking for someone more mature. That someone may be Buddy's friend George (Donald Holden), an introverted boy with a congenitally soft skull that requires him to wear a helmet. In various permutations, they hang out with their friends Vernon (Damian Jewan Lee) and Sonya (Rachael Handy), as well as the workers at the local railyard including Rico (Paul Schneider). They talk. They play. They argue.

Actually, it's not accurate to say there's no story in GEORGE WASHINGTON. It's more accurate to say there's no plot, because its story is one of the year's most compelling, even when it occasionally lapses into heavy-handedness. It has become something of a national pastime trying to figure out what's wrong with American teens in the era of Columbine, and plenty of films from RIVER'S EDGE to KIDS and onward have tried to capture the aimlessness, amorality and anarchy of contemporary adolescence. I don't think any one of them has captured the soul of America's confused youth as effectively -- or with as much compassion -- as GEORGE WASHINGTON. It's the story of kids trying to find a moral compass in a time when their childhood is becoming shorter and shorter.

If such subject matter sounds like it could turn into pretentious filmmaking, fear not. Though Green's early slow-motion shots may raise fears that he's trying to make a Big Statement, he ultimately depends on small statements. His cast of young non-professional actors, often improvising around general story points, finds the truth of these characters in dialogue so casual that its profundity comes as an aftershock. A teenage girl comments that she want to get pregnant simply because "she wants to be someone's mom;" Buddy talks about Nasia with a precocious, almost ridiculous poetry; Nico converses with Buddy as though they were peers, despite the boy's need for adult guidance. Even Nasia's occasionally florid voice-over narration feels just right, the attempts of a little girl to convey her worldliness. In its rambling, no-particular-place-to-go rhythm, it's hypnotic viewing.

It's also the most beautifully photographed film you're likely to see this year. Tim Ott's cinematography captures the characters mostly outdoors against the landscape, in both the lushness of local greenery and the decay of abandoned industrial shells. Virtually every scene seems to have been shot in some otherworldly twilight, so golden that they almost hurt the eyes. The rare scenes shot indoors capture the grimness of the characters' domestic lives, and one dark public restroom becomes the film's unique vision of hell. When you're not busy wondering at the naturalistic splendor of the performances, you'll be busy wondering at the carefully constructed splendor of the visuals.

GEORGE WASHINGTON's final half hour takes a turn toward other thematic elements, as George attempts to re-define himself after a tragic development. The transition isn't particularly smooth, but Green doesn't appear particularly concerned with making his film a smooth experience. Indeed, some of his editing and dialogue choices are so off-beat (like the complete absence of profanity from its teenage characters) you can't help but just let him carry you wherever he leads. Where he's leading is a place hinted at in the film's title, a place where children are forced to look backward for their heroes because there aren't any in their own lives. Yes, indeed, GEORGE WASHINGTON does tell a story. If only more films with plots could tell stories like this.

         On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 floundering fathers:  9.

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