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Go
***1/2
Cinema
Releases - September 3, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Doug Liman. Written by John August. Starring Sarah
Polley, Katie Holmes, Desmond Askew, Taye Diggs, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Timothy
Olyphant, William Fichtner, Jane Krakowski.
As many of my readers will know, I'm still a young
guy. Under 20, in fact. I'm still at an age when one of my worlds is that
of the local bars and nightclubs. When I frequently find myself on energetic
mini-adventures, fuelled by alcohol, smoke, loud music, louder conversations,
fast dancing and strong sexual impulses.
Doug Liman's "Go", a thoroughly
exciting party of a film, is an adventure fuelled by just the same things.
It's loud, violent, boozy and quite literally dark, but while this suggests
something gritty and shocking, it's a picture to be laughed and danced
to.
As you'll no doubt have already read, "Go" has
inspired comparisons with "Pulp Fiction", but this is rather unfair. Quentin
Tarantino's 1994 masterpiece existed as a knowing juggle of styles, primarily
those of sleazy crime comics and tough crime movies. It was nostalgic and
evocative of the 70s, the decade in which Tarantino grew up, and that poignancy
was an important part of its success, as was its use of serious themes --
such as loyalty, betrayal, immorality and redemption. All "Go" shares with
"Pulp Fiction" is a vaguely similar premise -- both movies tell several wild,
conversational, darkly comic, somehow-connected weekend stories in a frenzied,
colourful manner.
Taking place in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, these
stories, and the subplots therein, feature teens and twentysomethings, and
involve a drug deal gone horribly wrong, a drug con gone astoundingly right,
a rave everyone seems to have a flyer for, one lucky fellow's tantric sex
with two bridesmaids, stolen cars, found guns, angry gangsters, a hotel fire,
a near-death experience, the layout of cartoon strips in the Sunday newspaper
and a pair of gay actors trying to untangle themselves from the grip of a
very odd narc. When situations get too hot for the participants to handle,
they invariably have the same simple solution: "GO!"
Liman, who directed and photographed the movie,
accelerates its pulse as required, while populating the stage with a hot
young cast. As the three main characters, all of whom are supermarket cashiers,
there's Sarah Polley from "The Sweet Hereafter", looking a lot like Uma Thurman;
Katie Holmes, from the TV show "Dawson's Creek", speaking nervously speedily;
and Desmond Askew, in his first major film role, as a clueless, antsy cockney.
William Fichtner, who was a psychotic cop in "Strange Days", is merely an
eccentric one here, as is his wife, played by Jane Krakowski from "Ally McBeal".
Taye Diggs appears as Marcus, a pretty much redundant voice of
reason.
"Go" is not quite a great film, for several simple
reasons. It lacks memorable opening and closing chapters, never finds a way
to create a comfortable rhythm around its stretches of tension, and there's
rivalry between certain characters where there should be friendly familiarity.
And amazing fun as "Go" is, it leaves us with the question that should be
the last thing on our minds at the end of a movie: Why did I go to the cinema
to witness these emotions, when I could have been living them
out?
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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