Go Go Tales (2007)

Director:

Abel Ferrara

Writer:

Abel Ferrara (writer)

Release Date:

20 June 2008 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A screwball comedy centered on a Manhattan go-go dancing club, where a financial struggle between the owner, his accountant and his silent partner brother threatens the business's future. |

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Willem Dafoe	...	Ray Ruby
Bob Hoskins	...	The Baron
Matthew Modine	...	Johnie Ruby
Asia Argento	...	Monroe
Lou Doillon	...	French
Roy Dotrice	...	Jay
Frankie Cee	...	Luigi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mara Adriani	...	Mara
Bianca Balti	...	Adrian
Sebina Beganovic	...	Elektra
Franky Cee	...	Luigi
Joseph Cortese	...	Danny Cash
Leslie Csuth	...	Wall Street Broker
Frank DeCurtis	...	DeeJay
Nicky Dee	...	Bobby B.
Dominot	...	Anita Finger
Aurora Giuliani	...	Kelly
Singh Gurcharnjit	...	Zoom
María Jurado	...	Goldie
Selena Khoo	...	Leila
Xhilda Lapardhaja	...	Salome
Shanyn Leigh	...	Dolly
Andy Luotto	...	Stanley
Alberto Mangiante	...	Big Don
Justine Mattera	...	Sugar
Yuliya Mayarchuk	...	Tania
Adrian McCourt	...	Wall Street broker
Julie McNiven	...	Madison
Sylvia Miles	...	Lilian Murray
Joseph Murray	...	Wall Street Broker
Jay Natelle	...	Wall street broker
Lal Nirmal	...	Asim
Anita Pallenberg	...	Sin
Francis Pardeilhan	...	Wall Street broker
Sammy Pasha	...	Sam
Chiara Picchi	...	Ally
Romina Power	...	Yolanda Vega
Pras	...	Sandman
Danny Quinn	...	Clark
Stefania Rocca	...	Debby
Anton Rodgers	...	The english man
Riccardo Scamarcio	...	Doctor Steven
Francesco Serina	...	Wall street broker
Johnny Skreli	...	Junior
Leila Virzì	...	Bonnie
Burt Young	...	Murray
Manuela Zero	...	Sophie

Runtime:

USA:96 min

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Italy:VM14

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Bellatrix Media

Trivia:

Gary Oldman and then Robert Carlyle were originally set to star in the project.

If you speak French, you'll find looking for inconsistencies in the subtitles more entertaining than what's going on on screen

If you speak French, you'll find looking for inconsistencies in the subtitles more entertaining than what's going on on screen. For any good film, I take well over a page of notes. For this one, I took less than half a page. 'Nuff said? Perhaps not. How can a film with Willem Dafoe as a strip club owner, and with Bob Hoskins, be boring? Well, this one is. How disappointing. Dafoe does more acting (and we learn more about his character) in the first scene of To Live and Die in L.A. than he does in this entire film. Dafoe as Ray Ruby, owner of the Paradise Club; Hoskins as the Baron (greeter / maître d' / bouncer); and Matthew Modine as Johnnie Ruby, the Salon King are nothing special here. On the other hand, Sylvia Miles as landlady Lilian Murray; and Stefania Rocca as Debby, a dancer who is also a screenwriter, are decent and believable.

As to the plot, there isn't much of one—nothing out of the ordinary happens here, nothing unexpected. There's no more conflict, no more actual heartfelt emotion at Ray's Paradise Club than there is at your own neighbourhood bar or pool hall. When a hundred seconds of plot are stretched out to a hundred minutes of film, that is NOT 'a good thing.' Likewise when any five minutes of a film look essentially the same as any other five minutes.

The sole exception is Selena Khoo as Leila, a dancer who is also an accomplished pianist. She should've been on screen a half hour more than she was. Oh well, maybe in the sequel. Oh, whom am I kidding? There isn't going to be a sequel. God, I hope not.