Young Washington Review: A three-faced experience
My favorite subject in school was always history, even though English and its tendencies have prevailed in terms of my career path. I watch nearly every film that comes to my theater, and I always love to see a good historical fiction flick. While Angel Studios and its quick-response-code-and-melodrama modus operandi are often cringey, the studio puts out a banger from time to time—Truth and Treason and David were incredible films, even if you aren't all that into religion. And Solo Mio saw them venture into the territory of cute romance and marital drama. Sketch and The Senior were also rather unique within their genres and were more effective than I expected! So, did this film fall right in line with their recent, wildly successful, and varied filmography, or did it fall into the realm of cringey agendas and subliminal messaging, as has been done repeatedly by both sides of the political spectrum and beyond? That's what I, Brighton Nelson of The Reel Ranker, will be discussing in today's review! Thank you all for joining me—it means the world—and I hope you enjoy your time here on the site!
Let's first get into the very unfortunate negatives. First, the ending squanders all the realism and grounded heroism that the rest of the film edified throughout its runtime. It's truly unfortunate to see a film that builds up the morals and chivalry of Washington by pulling a God-complex move, elevating him onto a supernatural pedestal like he's the Great Spirit and white Savior of the Natives. It pivots on the earnest respect he deserves, instead using Marvel Cinematic Universe-like action logic and an end scene that feels more mock-Hitler in nature than George Washington, in his humility, would. David ends the film with a similar scene. Still, it doesn't feel like a character betrayal because of the thematic elements, with him leaving off on a note in memory of his mom, and, I mean, he's actually just been crowned, which has always traditionally been associated with a city-wide gathering. Instead, the ending was giving General Hux from Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens in a disappointing way.
But one other flaw really took this movie from an easy recommendation to a film that's so frustrating—the utilization of AI. I'm not talking about Grammarly on the script, non-replacement storyboard help, or anything that has a modicum of validity in its usage. No. This film used AI to cut corners on visual effects, replacing work that would traditionally have gone to visual effects artists, resulting in every explosion looking hokey and uncanny, like it was generated by Sora. No love, no artistry, no soul. Just some sort of bot data center to ravage an otherwise competent experience. It was also used in color grading, to generate cold water "because it's too dangerous to use real water" (people have been figuring this out for almost a century), and who knows what else. A total of 400 shots were AI-generated! Yet they had plenty of quick-response code scanning, crowdfunding, and memberships to hire Serkis, Kingsley, and Grammer...
I can forgive poor visual effects. I can't forgive unethical use of a tool meant to be a remedial source for mundane, repetitive tasks that creatives shouldn't waste time on. AI can't replace art! At the same time, the choice to use AI by some leads to a tricky ethical proposition: can those who are non-complicit in such endeavors be punished as well? Should the actors and screenwriters be punished in proxy for those truly at fault—that is, the one at fault, Jon Erwin, director and head of AI production company Innovative Dreams? In my opinion, not at all.
For the same reason, I won't fully condemn things like Jeepers Creepers or the Harry Potter novels—a director or author isn't the only one who put blood, sweat, and tears into the project. As a big fan of many films he's had a hand in, like I Still Believe and The Unbreakable Boy, both of which are absolute classics, I guess I have to put my faith in Andrew Erwin and just hope he doesn't fall into the trap of this toxic contamination that is wrongful AI usage. Also, the greenlit sequel? That better not backslide into Mr. Erwin's mistakes, or Jon Erwin is dead to me. And his name ain't Lazarus.
So, where does that leave the film in the positives? The performances are fantastic, and the execution of the story leading up to the finale was exquisite. While I feel it's a rather surface-level exploration of his life, I'm okay with that since, to my knowledge, this isn't a portion of Washington's life often covered by the film medium. The lead has a subdued but great performance, and I hope he lands some other roles soon because he was solid. And those aforementioned stars that they broke their bank and budget on? They all did fantastically at adding both gravitas and levity that juxtapose the lead's stripped-back performance.
The writing and dialogue are solid, and the non-AI shots look pretty great, at least by Angel standards (Sketch and David are the huge exceptions, which leave a dynamic visual footprint). The film does a great job of feeling epic and historic in scope, and some scenes are quite gritty and grimy!
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 55%
Letter Score: C+
Star Ranking: 3 out of 5
Young Washington is an extremely three-faced experience. It's equal parts maddening, middling, and satisfying. For example, there's great performances, a solid script, and alright cinematography, but horrible AI-infested effects. There's enough to latch onto due to the performance and historical elements, but not enough to warrant more than a slight thumbs-up recommendation.
Interested in checking out some recent reviews for some other biographies? Or Angel films? See them below!
Brighton Nelson
Brighton Nelson
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