A unique coming of age drama film that feels inspired by the movie Stand By Me. This film fills you with uncertainty from beginning to end and leaves you with your thoughts afterwards. Such a great watch and I definitely recommend it.

In the top five American indie films of the last 25 years. A masterwork.

I liked this way more than I thought I would after seeing that this was the same director that made Halloween Kills. I've seen a fair number of movies where the goal is to portray fiction as if it was a documentary but I think this one does it best. There were a strong handful of scenes where you notice the camerawork, giving the impression that the fly on the wall found the best possible angle to watch the scenes unfold. The second-act plot twist really took me and that entire scene is surprisingly suspenseful. I did have trouble believing the plot point about the boy's life being in danger if his head got wet; I'm sure there are birth defects about the skull not hardening but I wouldn't think getting wet would harm a soft head. It would have fit the plot just as well and been more believable for them to say he couldn't go underwater lest the increased pressure kill him or something like that. Anyway, a minor knock on what really was a great movie. Kudos!

George Washington is the moving story of children coming to terms with the harsh realities of life in a small town in North Carolina. Their hopes and dreams are shattered when one of them is killed while playing an innocent game, leaving them with a sober understanding of their fate in life. This debut by director David Gordon Green, who would go on to direct such wildly disparate films as Pineapple Express and Halloween, is a languid and meditative examination of how friends, family, and the environment shape our lives. The non-professional child actors, who do a great job, bring to light the fact that despite the seemingly insurmountable odds against them, there is always hope.

I didn't really enjoy this movie. It was weird. There's a story to be told here, but it was painfully B rate.....missed the mark for me....... Guess I just didn't get it.

It speaks in a quiet voice volumes of ourselves and the world that we live in.

Set in North Carolina, the film follows a group of friends - George, Buddy, Vernon, and Sonya - whose lives are forever changed one tragic summer day when Buddy, while they're messing around, slips and hits his head. At first, he seems okay, but then he starts behaving erratically and bleeds from his head and ears before collapsing to the ground, dead. The friends panic and fearing that they'll get in trouble, hide his body in an abandoned warehouse. George doesn't seem to know how to react, Vernon is stricken with guilt, and Sonya seems indifferent to Buddy's death. Afterward, George becomes the town hero when he rescues a boy from drowning and goes around trying to be a superhero. However, there is much more to George Washington than just a simple plot summary. It's not just about tragedy, but also the turmoil of growing up, upbringing, the fickle nature of friendship, and much more. It's a strange and compelling film that never follows any particular structure and just likes to follow its characters around in this decaying North Carolina town. I'm okay with that, because this film is so beautifully directed, superbly performed, and so engaging that I would follow these characters to the ends of the earth. It never focuses on one emotion, but instead gives the viewer the opportunity to feel a great deal of emotions. It's a film where you not only appreciate the bigger dramatic moments, but you also come to treasure and enjoy even the smaller moments with these characters. It's one of the great films of the century.

Poetic and passionate.

George Washington is surprising because 1. it's directed by a white dude who seems to throughly understand African American culture and 2. that white dude also directed Your Highness and The Sitter

A poem about the beauty of human relationships. An observation of adolescent hopefulness. A somber remembrance of the moment that that hopefulness is lost. David Gordon Green's "George Washington" is a lot of things. Among those things, it is the best that 21st century American independent cinema has to offer. It is a masterpiece.

This film is great on so many levels. I love the documentary style of shooting even though it does not seem like a documentary. Watching this film my heart breaks as these african-american teens go through the hardships of adolescence, poverty, and abandonment

A portrait of rustic life so compelling, it's easy to forget you're watching a movie.

With a rhythm all its own, this largely anecdotal film gathers together human moments, strange and moving, but somehow real - or real from this alternate universe where the film has occurred. There is a plot of sorts - we follow the lives of some young kids in North Carolina (probably) and see how they cope with a tragedy that occurs -- or how they don't cope. The minimalist music track gets you on its wavelength and slows down your need for anything other than character development and empathic feelings. The kids are great, providing line readings that are naturalistic but not. The adults provide comic relief or alien behaviour. I haven't seen anything else by director David Gordon Green (um, Pineapple Express?) but here, in his debut feature, he showed a poetic sense and an eye for alternately rusted out and lush landscapes. Worth seeking out.

A mesmerizing and soulful work of tragedy and heart, this Malick-esque look at inner-city teenagers dealing with boredom is poetic and pointed. A wonderful world made up of broken yet beautiful locations and sweetly cozy performances, it's a funny and jaw-dropping character(s)-study which reminds us that not everything can be hidden or thrown away.

Messed up movie about loony characters in a weird town, nothing made sense to me, only watched it due to the high ratings.

6.3/10 — "Okay"/"Watchable"

Awful film. Slow, boring and painful to watch with 3rd rate acting and a dreadful none eventful story.

I've seen this type before; rough, sweaty, shaky cam, weird kids and 3rd world like American town... Nice pace but not enough to bring me in.

This movie should be a classic, there are many reasons why, but I want to focus on the cinematography by Tim Orr. Orr shoots the film in 35MM anamorphic & gives it a warm and delicate hue . It's beautiful, but not in the traditional sense. This is a beauty that captures the slow decay of an landscape and the fading memories of the people within it

The debt to Malick is a little too pronounced (though the stylistic comparison that leapt immediately to my mind was The New World, so maybe the debt is Malick's!), and the plot is a little too high stakes and feels intrusive at times, but it's beautiful and warm and easy to love, and the actors are all wonderful. Though Green may have done better later, this is a pretty good start.