Review - Young Washington

Starring William Franklyn-Miller, Ben Kingsley, Mary-Louise Parker, Kelsey Grammer. Screenplay by Jon Erwin, Diederik Hoogstraten and Tom Provost. Directed by Jon Erwin. Rated PG-13. 125 minutes. In theaters.

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“You’re not just watching a film, you’re helping launch a movement,” announces co-star Kelsey Grammer, in what’s billed as a “special message” asking the audience for money during the closing credits of “Young Washington.” This is a tactic for which distributor Angel Studios has become notorious, slapping a QR code onscreen so that viewers revved up in a righteous, post-movie fervor can whip out their phones and “Pay It Forward” by buying more tickets so other folks can come see the film for free, or “supporting the creation of more entertainment that amplifies light.” No matter how much this may sound like a money laundering scheme, I am assured it is entirely legal and above board. Anyway, the one thing they’ve got over those godless heathens at PBS is that at least Angel Studios waits until the end of the program for the pledge break.

The artist formerly known as Frasier Crane only appears in “Young Washington” for about four minutes, playing colonial nobleman Lord Fairfax of Virginia and bringing his trademark pomp and circumstance to lines like, “I sense a looming storm over the Ohio territory.” This starchy movie really could have used more of his relish. But Grammer has nonetheless been out there as the public face of the film, giving a bizarre interview to Vulture in which he said he regrets not fighting in the Vietnam War. (A deranged thing to share in 2026, especially since the 71-year-old actor wouldn’t have been of enlistment age until 1973, when troop withdrawals were already underway.) During his dramatic closing-credits appeal on behalf of “Young Washington,” Grammer declares that freedom, virtue and liberty are still worth fighting for – expelling such an alarming, backlit gob of saliva while saying the word “liberty” that one wishes the producers had considered a second take worth fighting for.