Review: Go (1999)

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Go

Rating

Director

Doug Liman

Screenplay

John August

Length

1h 42m

Starring

Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, Nathan Bexton, Robert Peters, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant, William Fichtner

MPAA Rating

Review

Quentin Tarantino has had more effect on modern movies than most recent directors have. Lately the “Pulp Fiction” clones are coming out of the woodwork. First came his own unsuccessful “Jackie Brown” and now teens have gotten into the groove. Director Doug Liman (“Swingers”) turns teen angst and drug addiction into a booming business by weaving three separate, yet connected stories into one coherent teen-oriented movie called “Go.”

Sarah Polley (“The Sweet Hereafter”) plays Ronna Martin, a young woman whose dead-end life is working in a grocery store trying to afford rent and not quite making it. She is the subject of the first segment of the film. A fellow employee, Simon (Desmond Askew), asks her to switch shifts with him so he can do something and she agrees because she’s hard up for the cash.

That night, two guys come in looking for Simon to make a drug deal. Ronna knows what they want and offers to get it for them in Simon’s place. The first story is about how she gets the drugs and what happens after.

Then we switch to the third story, which is about why Simon really wanted to trade shifts. He’s going with some friends to Las Vegas and the second story is about all the trouble he gets into there with his three friends, the most prominent of which is Marcus played by Taye Diggs.

The third story centers on the two guys searching for drugs: Zack (Jay Mohr) and Adam (Scott Wolf). Their story is about what happens after the drug deal with Ronna and is about the test of their friendship.

“Go” isn’t an easy film to describe without giving away too much information. Since most of these stories take place after key action has occurred, it is impossible to go into detail without doing so. It is a fast-paced film that tries to capture the “Pulp Fiction” experience, but only takes one aspect: the plot structure. There are truly no breakout performances in this film. Everyone works well together and any one of them could have a promising career ahead of them.

The essence of “Go” lies in its campy, teenage appeal. It is entertaining and fun to watch. It easily captures the “joi de vivre” of the young adult audience and will most readily appeal to them. Most adults might enjoy this, but the older the audience gets, the harder it will be for them to cope with the frankness of the subject matter as a whole.