Go

This film was quite a surprise, I knew its vibe screamed 90s and that was one of the reasons I was so drawn to it, the other one being that it's a multiple point of view story, which if done very well, it can be really effective and efficient in telling a story. So the premise is a drug deal gone awry, and told from three different perspectives, of course each providing us different takes on the same problem and how it got the characters there in the first place. Really interesting, well executed. The acting is great, especially Timothy Olyphant and William Fichtner, who stand out in my opinion. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that the people involved are just young, naive people, rather than gangsters and evil-spirited people. Timothy Olyphant's character is kinda shady, but he's really charismatic and that's an engaging quality. There is an arousing mixture of characters that constantly mess up and the results are exhilarating.

Go is clearly an underrated film, and if you are reading this, I highly recommend it to you.

"Go" reads like a very very good sophomore offering by a very very good up-and-coming director. You can almost see a bright future for everyone involved in the film, from the director (Doug Liman) to the screenwriter (John August) to all of the young actors. The script is clearly the winner, with witty dialogue and a convoluted plotline (or plotlines, depending on how you view it) centered around a dozen or so GenX-er Los Angelenos on Christmas Eve. The film slickly moves you from one plotline to the next, as you follow one minor disaster leading to other minor disasters.

The film being a "sophomore offering," of course, has some drawbacks. Yes, it is tangentially derivative of "Pulp Fiction." And yes, it does scrounge a bit from this teen flick and that. In some cases, certain plotlines wrap up too neatly, and in other cases the plotlines don't converge nearly as neatly enough. But what the film may lack in originality it certainly makes up for with style and quirks.

The real discovery in all this is the cast. Sarah Polly stands out (listen to her mild Canadian accent slip through once in a while) as the world-weary checkout gal who's first and only foray into drug-dealing unleashes a legion of trouble for her. Desmond Askew (wonderfully punny name) is this Pulp Fiction's Tim Roth, glib and cocky as his well-ordered world whirls and crumbles around him in a neatly choreographed disaster. As the sinister drug supplier, Timothy Olyphant is particularly menacing, exuding equal amounts of danger and innocence, sexiness and insecurity. The characters in "Go" never become cardboard parodies of themselves, and they never dissolve into charicatures of themselves for the sake of plot or atmosphere.

So watch the film, soak in the plot, atmosphere, and the characters. At the risk of sounding glib myself, by all means "Go."

After PULP FICTION a lot of films tried to emulate its format. But none came close to matching its success. GO has clear elements of PULP FICTION in it, but it does its own thing at the same time. This is the right way to make a movie that may be inspired by another great film while still branching out on its own.

The story is great fun from the first frame to the last. The characters are fun and believable and there is a lot of great dialog here. Every time I watch it I continue to be impressed, even still after all these years. It never lets me down and it never once lets up even for a second. Highly recommend.

I liked this movie well enough to watch it twice. I waited 'til it came out on video, but made sure to see it, because it stars Sarah Polley, who I've been a fan of since her "Road to Avonlea" days. This is not a serious movie. It's fun, upbeat, quick, and for those with short attention spans. I liked it. I didn't think it was as incredible as some say, but enjoyable enough to watch it twice. So many people have compared it to Pulp Fiction. Frankly, the only similarity I see between the two, is the "jumping around timelines". Which I like. Good movie to watch, just don't bother trying to analyze it - you won't come up with much.

It's fun going back and watching these movies from the 90s and seeing all these actors before they made it as big as they did (or at least some of them did). 'Go' got itself a pretty decent cast and probably did it for the minimum cost. Even Melissa McCarthy makes a brief (but quite funny) cameo. It meant a lot of fun performances in a fun little film.

I've always enjoyed the 3-perspective format. I've seen it in television a lot (it works perfectly in sit-com format separated by two ad breaks) but haven't seen it as often in films. I thought it was going to be how three people experienced the same story but it was more a case of three separate stories which happen to intersect a lot.

I found the characters in this movie either likeable or interesting. The likeable ones weren't always interesting but the unlikable ones certainly were (if that makes sense). The film also finds a good balance between humour and seriousness. It has some laughs but it never feels like that is the primary goal. I liked this film. 7/10.