Go (1999)

Director:

Doug Liman

Writer (WGA):

John August (written by)

Release Date:

9 April 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

life begins at 3am.

Plot:

Go! tells the story of the events after a drug deal, told from three different points of view.

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Bouncer | Strip Club | Striptease | Casino

Awards:

5 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Katie Holmes	...	Claire Montgomery
Sarah Polley	...	Ronna Martin
Suzanne Krull	...	Stringy Haired Woman
Desmond Askew	...	Simon Baines
Nathan Bexton	...	Mannie
Robert Peters	...	Switterman
Scott Wolf	...	Adam
Jay Mohr	...	Zack
Timothy Olyphant	...	Todd Gaines
Jodi Bianca Wise	...	Ballerina Girl
William Fichtner	...	Burke
Rita Bland	...	Dancing Register Woman
Tony Denman	...	Track Suit Guy
Scott Hass	...	Raver Dude
Natasha Melnick	...	Anorexic Girl

MPAA:

Rated R for strong drug content, sexuality, language and some violence.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KNT | Canada:14A | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | Israel:16 | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:15 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:R(A) | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

L.A.P.D. Hollywood Station - 1358 Wilcox Ave., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Banner Entertainment

Trivia:

The director picked the grocery store that the movie was filmed in because of its "run-down, big city" quality. When the producers paid the owner of the supermarket for permission to film there, the owners took some of that money and repainted and repaired the store, for a more "hollywood" look. The director and producers were understandably unhappy with this, since the only reason they picked the store was how it looked in the first place. The producers, after getting consent from the store, hired a crew to bring the store back to what it had looked like before. The finished product is what you see in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the guys from the strip club chase Simon and Marcus to their hotel room, one puts his hand over the eye hole to hide their identities and says "room service". Through the spyhole they see his hand including the fingers. When they then cut to the door you seem him take away his hand which was previously completely covering the spyhole. You wouldn't be able to see any of his hand if he spread his hand completely over the hole.

Quotes:

Burke: I just want to make a deal. Can we make a deal?
Ronna: Who the hell are you? Monty Hall?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Big Fish (2003)

Soundtrack:

Believer

A wonderful wild ride; sometimes too clever, sometimes not enough

"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."