GO Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****) Columbia / 1:43 / 1999 / R (language, violence, strong drug use, sexuality, glimpses of nudity) Cast: Sarah Polley; Desmond Askew; Jay Mohr; Scott Wolf;Taye Diggs; William Fichtner; J.E. Freeman; Katie Holmes; Timothy Olyphant; Jane Krakowski; Breckin Meyer; James Duval Director: Doug Liman Screenplay: John August
The emphatic title of "Go" alternates as a well-deserved, one-word recommendation of the movie itself: Don't dawdle, don't deliberate, don't protest, just _go_. It also functions as a well-deserved, one-word summary of what happens in the movie: The characters here are constantly _on_ the go, outrunning disgruntled junkies, angry strip club thugs or their own mistakes. Slap the double-meanings together and you've got one seriously wild ride. To pass "Go" would be to deny yourself the rush of watching fine filmmaking, a truly unpredictable storyline and spirited acting come together in a fully satisfying whole.
A rush of a different kind accompanies the on-screen action, which begins with a Ecstasy deal gone horribly awry and paves the way for trips - literal and figurative - into territory seedier still. A snowball effect of sorts starts in "Go"'s opening scenes, as strapped-for-cash supermarket clerk Ronna (Sarah Polley) agrees to take the shift of British co-worker Simon (Desmond Askew) so he can travel to Las Vegas with his mates and she can hopefully nab enough cash to avoid being evicted from her Los Angeles pad. How convenient, then, that she stumbles into an opportunity to make some extracurricular dough via dabbling in the drug trade.
With a breakneck pace and fine attention to detail, all this is nearly perfectly realized - and only the first in a series of three separate but interlocking "chapters" cooked up by debut screenwriter John August. Bravo to him for keeping momentum dizzily spinning throughout "Go," even if the influence of Quentin Tarantino is fairly obvious in narrative structure, a key soundtrack selection and same scenes shown through several different points-of-view. Could this film have been made without "Pulp Fiction" or "Reservoir Dogs"? Maybe not. Does that negate its intoxicating good-time vibe? Definitely not.
Besides, to call "Go" totally Tarantino overlooks its original energy, style and tone. These assets spark the remaining pair of vignettes, although they aren't quite up to the challenge of topping Ronna's hilariously chaotic plight (though the finale comes close). In the middle section, the focus is on Simon and company, as they recklessly tear through Sin City and get a nudie bar crew on their bad sides. Then, a couple of soap stars (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf), significant role-players in Ronna's quest for excess, spend a bizarre Christmas dinner with a strange cop (William Fichtner) and his stranger wife (Jane Krakowski).
That last bit provides "Go"'s biggest laugh, as Fichtner's understated performance successfully compliments his unforeseeable ulterior motives. Other MVPs that shine in an already supremely polished cast: Polley, unfazed and quite the entrepenuer; Katie Holmes as her best bud, cutely nervous and caustic when issued by Polley as collateral to a dealer; Timothy Olyphant as the dealer, his dangerous profession and demeanor hiding the fact that he's a pretty OK guy; Taye Diggs as a suave, meditative high-roller; and the always engaging Breckin Meyer, delightfully over-the-top as a crude homeboy-wannabe.
Director Doug Liman went the same route in "Swingers," combining colorful people, snappy dialogue and a jazzy locale, but "Go" goes his freshman feature a few better by upping both dramatic urgency and production values. Most of the plot threads, for example, end up congregating in a place that would have been way out of "Swingers"' budget - a seductively glowing, techno-pumping warehouse rave. It's an ironic setting to bring everything in "Go" together, because this movie deserves some raves of its own.
© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "And not only do we see genitalia in this movie - they do exercises." -Roger Ebert on "Pink Flamingos"
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