A film review by Jeffery Sanders Copyright © 1999 Jeffery Sanders

Halfway through Go I wondered why the filmmakers chose such an ambiguous title. By the end it was obvious. Why Go? It goes. It moves. It groves.

Go, Doug Limon’s follow up to his cult hit Swingers, is basically about one night, a group of friends, and the rave scene in Los Angeles. But it is much more narrative than Swingers, which was fun yet still didn’t amount to much more than some cool new lingo (That beautiful baby knows I’m money!). Go is a hard movie to classify without citing Pulp Fiction as a creative match. I admit there are many similarities between Go and Pulp Fiction. But like another recent Tarantinish flick Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Go has a completely different environment than Pulp Fiction and uses it’s now classic separate chronology. If you're familiar with my tastes, then you know that I don’t mind familiarity as long as it’s not boring. Go is never boring. That is one of the reasons it’s title is so fitting.

Go provides us with three (but technically more) interlocking story lines that all take place during one 24-hour Yuletide period. We meet Ronna (Sarah Polley) and her friends Claire (Katie Holmes) and Mannie (Nathan Beckstam). The first half hour segment centers around Ronna, who is broke, trying to make the most of a failed drug deal. The second act is about four friends (Taye Diggs and Desmond Askew play the most headstrong of the bunch) going on a trip to Vegas and getting involved in some very bad things. The third act involves a couple of curious actors (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf) helping in a drug sting set up by a very strange cop (William Fichtner) and his equally strange wife (Jane Krakowski). As is common in these movies, the stories criss-cross ironically and sometimes hilariously.

Performances are uniformly excellent with several standouts. Sarah Polley (like me, she’s a Canuck) is absolutely fantastic as seventeen year old Ronna, Taye Diggs is surprisingly smooth as Marcus and Desmond Askew is a lot of fun as the British/Scottish Simon.

What gives this movie such a rush is the pounding soundtrack which rarely lets up and actually brings a sense of anticipation to each new scene. The music is one of the best things about the film. Immediately after viewing I purchased the soundtrack and was not disappointed. Since several scenes take place inside a rave, the awesome techno music propels the movie to "almost being there" heights.

Go isn’t perfect, and it’s three acts are pretty uneven in terms of style and amount of comedy. Go almost turns from a straight drama at the beginning to a wacky comedy at the end. The ending is not as strong as the rest of the movie, but it is satisfying enough to not ruin the film.

Go is fun, but not revolutionary. But it is very off-beat compared to most of the youth-oriented films out there and, as I like to say, fun is fun. Go see Go.

8/10

	Running Time: 100 Minutes | Rated 'R.' | US Release: April 9th | More >>

Related 'Go' Links:

• Official Site
• Rejected 'Go' Poster
• Upcomingmovies.com: Go

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