Film Review : GEORGE WASHINGTON * * * *

GEORGE WASHINGTON (2000)

CAST Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Damien Jawan Lee, Curtis Cotton III,Rachel Handy, Paul Schneider

DIRECTOR David Gordon Green

This is one of those films you wish were made on a daily basis. David Gordon Green, the director, molds together a simple story with such complex problems and issues. Green could have wrote this movie using adult players, but he uses children, and that seems much more effective.

The film centralizes around four young kids. Three blacks and one little white girl. They are in a small North Carolina town where apparently integration had been accepted. Some of the older white kids working in the local industries seem close to Vernon (Lee), Buddy (Cotton III), and George (Holden). These moments of reflection and insight are refreshing to see. Not all places on this earth condemn interracial relationships.

George is Goerge Richardson. A kid born with a soft skull. He is also very slow, but he has characteristics of a wonderful young man. He, Vernon, and Buddy (along with Sonya) are playing around in an abandoned buildings restroom when an accident occurs causing death to fall on one of the boys. The rest of the plot pretty much deals with how they are gonna handle the situation. But it's not that that really makes the film as great as it is. What makes this film so wonderful is the relationships between blacks and whites and how they are handled. Youth here is represented in an honest fashion with actors so wet behind the ears that they dont seem like they're acting at all. That alone gives every minute of this film a feeling of authenticity. Something I do not think could have happened with so called seasoned 10 year old actors.

What a treat to see filmmakers come out of the woodwork like David Gordon Green. He has accomplished more with this film than many directors have amassed in a whole career. This is a great film, good for the young and good for the old.