George Washington marks the stunning debut of David Gordon Green, 24, a writer and director of rare grace and feeling. The plot has nothing to do with our bewigged first president. George (Donald Holden) is a thirteen-year-old black boy living in a multiethnic town in North Carolina. He hangs with a handful of friends around a rusted-out railroad station. The film is narrated by Nasia (Candace Evanofski) in a style that evokes the Linda Manz voice-over in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. Nasia, who has just broken up with Buddy (Curtis Cotton III), sees quiet George as a romantic hero. It's a sharp contrast to the relationship between beefy Vernon (Damian Jewan Lee) and Sonya (Rachael Handy), a blond twig of a girl who helps Vernon steal a car. During a game, one of the kids is accidentally killed. A decision is made to hide the body, and Green focuses on how that decision affects the lives of the kids. Using nonprofessional actors and mostly improvised dialogue, Green creates a dreamlike evocation of youth — the delicacy of Ted Orr's widescreen camerawork is extraordinary — that is shattered by a pressing need for maturity. At times, the film recalls River's Edge and Kids as well as Days of Heaven, but, in essence, Green has created a work of startling originality that will haunt you for a good, long time.

“Alison”

On Elvis Costello’s country-tinged ballad, the lyric does not get too sentimental in recalling an ex who had since been with one of the singer's "little friends" and is now married. Some believe the song is about murder, due to lines like “Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking,” "Somebody better put out the big light" and, of course, "My aim is true,” which became the title of Costello's debut album. In 2002, Costello told Rolling Stone, “It isn’t [about murder]. It’s about disappointing somebody. It’s a thin line between love and hate, as the Persuaders sang.”