George Washington (Criterion #152). 2000 Cowboy Pictures & Janus Films.
Starring: Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Paul Schneider, Curtis Cotton III
Director: David Gordon Green
Available at Amazon.
Taking place in a depressed and run down town somewhere in North Carolina, we follow an integrated group of kids who basically do nothing but hang out all day, every day with no real adult supervision aside from the small group of adults who are trapped in this town, and mainly interact with the kids to kill time. It's summertime. There's next to nothing to do.
Nasia (Evanofski) narrates the movie, and she has recently broken up with a boy, Buddy (Cotton III). She is now interested in the introverted George (Holden). George wears a helmet most of the time to protect his skull, since the plates in it never set correctly. He's also not supposed to get his head wet, but that doesn't stop him from saving a drowning boy in a pool one afternoon.
One day, the kids are playing in a zoo washroom, including Buddy and George. The two boys scuffle, and Buddy hits George in the head. George roughly pushes Buddy away, who slips, strikes his head, and dies. Instead of telling the adults what happened, George and the other kids try to hide Buddy's corpse. The kids are now uncomfortably drawn into a world of real, "adult" problems and choices that they have to make, no matter how ill equpped they are to deal with them.
Hell of a movie right here. Highly recommended.
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