{"id":66199,"date":"2026-07-05T04:39:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66199"},"modified":"2026-07-05T04:39:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:39:02","slug":"is-angel-studios-historical-drama-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66199","title":{"rendered":"Is Angel Studios\u2019 Historical Drama Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Young Washington<\/strong><\/u> is now playing in theaters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Young Washington is a sincere if stunted and superficial chronicle of the first US President\u2019s formative years that forged his character, leadership skills and saw him, two decades after the events depicted here, rebel against the British Empire he had dutifully served to become one of America\u2019s Founding Fathers<\/u>. This Jon Erwin-directed film strives to be a big screen historical epic, but its formulaic script and plainly evident budgetary limitations (there are some notable digital shots that are either rudimentary CGi or straight-up AI) keep it more at the level of a decent but generally flat TV movie.<\/p>\n

That said, this Angel Studios release is far more competently made and engaging than their other recent Presidential biopic, Reagan<\/u> (a schmaltzy, underwritten slog despite Dennis Quaid\u2019s earnest turn as the Gipper). Young Washington\u2019s battle scenes and depiction of survival on the early American frontier (Ireland stands in for colonial America) gives this film more grit and action than most other entries in the admittedly niche subgenre of Presidential biopics. <\/p>\n

As the title character, William Franklyn-Miller has the height and presence one associates with George Washington even if he otherwise looks nothing like him. He tries to find some layers in the role, and you care about George, but ultimately the story doesn\u2019t let him do much in the way of soul-searching beyond when he blows it in 1754 at Fort Necessity.<\/p>\n

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Washington\u2019s character arc goes from aspiring aristocrat and officer in His Majesty\u2019s Army to realizing that his goal to join the British gentry or receive a royal military commission is naive and unattainable. His ambition leads him to seek out benefactors in the persons of Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammer, in his third project about Washington) and Virginia\u2019s Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie (a by-the-numbers Sir Ben Kingsley). Andy Serkis shows up later in a distractingly showy turn as General Braddock, who belatedly comes to see Washington\u2019s value. <\/p>\n

Although born into Virginia\u2019s planter class, Washington is still deemed by most of the Brits he interacts with as an inferior colonial, despite his older half-brother Lawrence (a kindly John Foss) being accepted among them because he owns property and was educated in England. George wants to join their ranks so when a chance to survey the Ohio frontier presents itself he eagerly volunteers. Turns out that Britain\u2019s nemesis France is already out there with imperial designs of their own\u2026<\/p>\n

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