Go (1999, Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes)

If Swingers made you roar, it’s successor will make you deeply envious at the talent of Doug Liman, who delivers another incredible comic tale of friendship, love and unbridled stupidity.

It’s Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. In need of cash, Ronna (Sarah Polley) works an extra shift at the supermarket, covering for Simon (Desmond Askew), who is heading for Las Vegas. When Adam and Zack (Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr) arrive looking to score ecstasy from Simon, Ronna steps in to make a quick profit.

Buying the tablets from dealer Todd (Timothy Olyphant), she arrives at Adam’s house and realises it’s a set-up. Flushing the tablets away, she replaces them with aspirin and returns then to Todd saying the deal fell through. Back at the beginning, Simon begs Ronna to take his shift, and heads for Vegas with Marcus (Taye Diggs), where they end up shooting a strip club bouncer. At the same time, Adam and Zack, low-rent soap actors, are pressured by undercover drugs cop Burke (William Fichtner) into setting up Ronna.

She gets away, heading for a rave followed by an angry drug dealer, confused actors, fugitive colleagues and a mobster father intent on repaying his bouncer son’s recent injury…

Any mention of Liman’s film will inevitably lead to comparisons, but as the director makes clear, ‘You can’t talk about Go without mentioning Tarantino…To me this is a much more sophisticated script. It’s anti-Tarantino.’ In truth they only have structural common ground, returning to the same scene repeatedly then floating off to follow a separate (but interrelated) series of events.

Naturally, the pace is frenetic, and Liman drops you in from the first frame, like a needle into the groove of a record. Such pace demands cast discipline, and the ensemble raise their game accordingly. Polley and former Grange Hill student Askew are the most memorable characters, but Katie Holmes from Dawson’s Creek , Olyphant and Fichtner are equally noteworthy, the latter especially in the Christmas dinner scene with his new actor buddies. Over turkey with all the trimmings Adam and Zack are convinced that Burke and his wife are wife swappers intent on a foursome. The truth is far more sleazier and disturbing: they are pyramid sellers, and need to extend their distribution base.

production details
USA | 98 minutes | 1999

Director: Doug Liman
Script: John August

cast
Sarah Polley as Ronna
Katie Holmes as Claire
Jay Mohr as Zack
Timothy Olyphant as Todd
William Fichtner as Burke
Scott Wolf as Adam
Robert Peters as Switterman
Suzanne Krull as Stringy Haired Woman
Desmond Askew as Simon Baines
Nathan Bexton as Mannie
Melissa McCarthy as Sandra
Taye Diggs as Marcus
Breckin Meyer as Tiny
James Duval as Singh
Jane Krakowski as Irene
Jay Paulson as Loop
Katharine Towne as Becky