Go (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/go.html Member: Online Film Critics Society
*** out of four
Starring Desmond Askew, Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Timothy Olyphant, Taye Diggs. Rated R.
What's a critic to do when he sees a movie he wholeheartedly enjoys but winds up asking why it was made? What if a film's purpose and the motivation behind it remains a mystery? What does one make of an interesting, entertaining movie that is almost utterly pointless? Watching Go, the new flick from Doug Liman, director of the sleeper hit Swingers put me in that very dilemma.
Go is an intriguingly structured movie in that it replays the period of time following a drug deal 3 times: each time from the perspective of a different character (or set of characters). First we are shown Ronna, a 17-year old girl who works at a supermarket and is about to be evicted on Christmas Day because she is short on her rent. When her drug trafficker friend Simon leaves for the weekend, she jumps at the chance of making some extra bucks by running a drug deal herself, until she finds out that her two customers are working for the police and are about to bust her. She is forced to halt mid-stream and dump her merchandise without getting any money, putting her in trouble with the drug dealer whom she still owes, and whom she left a friend of hers with as collateral. The movie then follows her as she tries to get out of the situation, attend a rave and pay her rent all at the same time.
Then, after a rather unpredictable turn of events the screen fades to black and we are taken all the way bact to the beginning, but this time the film follows Simon as he goes to Las Vegas with his friends where he gets in trouble with a nasty strip club bouncer and struggles to escape. Finally, as we are taken back to the beginning again, we see the story from the point of view of the two gay actors/criminals who are Ronna's "customers" working with the cops trying to catch her in the act of committing a crime.
Go is a daring, fast-paced movie that entertains down to the bone. The multitude of interesting characters also helps to keep the audience's attention, and few people will be bored. The movie's script, written by John August is full of quirky wit that will strike a chord with the film's younger audience as well as fans of Doug Liman's slightly more upbeat Swingers.
I also liked the way Liman brought all of the characters together in the end, revealing that they were all involved in the events that transpired after the drug deal that went terribly wrong. But even with this neat loose-end tier, Go suffers from lack of a common theme to tie these three stories together. Sure, the lusty, steamy, violent and rather thrilling action is wickedly entertaining but there's nothing to organize it and bring it all together under the surface.
Many comparisons will be made between Go and some of Quentin Tarantino's work, and rightfully so; some of his films have many structural similarities with Liman's movie. The kicker, however, is that while Tarantino's dialogue is rarely purely for dialogue's sake: there are always slight hints as to the movie's main theme. The dialogue in Go, while funny and original, is purely superficial.
Go is best viewed as an exceptionally good teen movie; where the viewer is happy that it is good but restricts himself from yearning for more from Doug Liman. More ambitious moviegoers may be dissappointed with this derivative frivolous exercise. But like I said before: No one will be bored.
©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
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