Young Washington (2026)

Young Washington is so busy saluting its hero that it forgets the young part. Jon Erwin covers 1753 to 1755, from the British Army rejecting George for his colonial birth to his first command in the Ohio Country, and the script keeps stopping so everyone can sound important. Sally Fairfax, his crush, talks like she time-traveled in from a modern rom-com. When the movie loosens its collar, it works. George and the surveyor Christopher Gist tumbling off a homemade raft into the freezing Allegheny is the most human he ever looks. The battle scenes are big, loud and legit rousing. Ben Kingsley and Andy Serkis bring the gravity of men who have worn a lot of powdered wigs, and William Franklyn-Miller is earnest in the lead, if a little blank. It made $47.1 million worldwide on a reported $20M. A 5.4 because the battles land and the history lesson never breathes. $34.38 says you look at a quarter this week and picture that guy soaking wet in a river.

What works: The battle scenes are loud and rousing, and the freezing river mishap with Christopher Gist gives George a rare, scrappy human moment.

What doesn’t: The storytelling is stiff and reverent, and Sally Fairfax’s dialogue sounds so modern that it breaks the spell of the 1750s every time she speaks.

Who it’s for: Families and history buffs who want a sincere, old-fashioned war movie about how Washington learned to lead.