Go

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The impact of a drug dealing plan is felt in a number of ways as grocery employees (and those that interact with them) during a night after work encounter unexpected difficulties.

Even though the inspiration of Tarantino is all over the 1999 movie, Go, I have to say I think it is rather fun. It isn’t necessarily a masterpiece or anything, but it has a lot of energy and lots of familiar from early in their careers. Katie Holmes, the very talented Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, James Duval, William Fichter (fabulous character actor that he is), Jane Krakowski, and Timothy Olyphant (right away establishing his star power in limited screen time) are some of the faces you see in the film. Even a young Melissa McCarthy has a small but amusing cameo as a roommate of a makeup artist that was a lover that interferes with the relations between gay movie-star couple Mohr and Wolf (who get a whole segment dedicated to them).

I think for Go, this will be a major draw, seeing all these faces compiled together. It is one of those “wild, crazy nights” kinds of movies where various characters meet unpredictable dangers and unforeseen tumult they will have to escape from.

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• Wolf and Mohr accidentally hit Polley at a rave (the rave, where all these kids congregate to dance and get wasted / doped) and frightfully consider what to do about it.
•  Polley, before getting hit by the car, faces the potential violence from a drug dealer (Olyphant) after shafting him (flushing drugs meant for Wolf and Mohr, in a bit of “you gotta be kidding me?” irony, as DEA cop Fichtner wants to get to Olyphant).
•  Holmes is stuck with Olyphant as “collateral” as Polley promises to make up money for him in what was supposed to be a prime buy, selling Ecstasy to Wolf and Mohr.       
•  Later Holmes will meet back with Olyphant in the morning when he is unable to get revenge on Polley for substituting Tylenol pills for Ecstasy thanks to the hit-and-run, with the two of them almost having sex.         
• Then you have Brit drug associate of Olyphant’s, Desmond Askew (a red headed slick charmer), going to Vegas after negotiating with Polley over his grocery store shift, tagging along with Diggs, Meyer, and Duval. He can’t keep his hands off a stripper, shoots a club owner in the arm, stunt drives his friend’s car throughout Vegas while trying to flee father-son club owners. This all after he loses all the money he had, meets up with two chicks at a Bar Mitzvah, bangs them in a hotel room, and flees as the room goes up in flames (one of the chicks had toilet paper up her nose so the marijuana smoke wouldn't leave her nose so she could “take it in” more!). Diggs stealing a hot car with Esckew in tow was just the icing on the cake!   
•  Nathan Bexton takes two pills of E, with Polley not knowing, spending most of his night in a hallucinatory daze. His scene involving a check clerk is rather amusing, but after Polley hides him in between garbage cans, he is an afterthought.

This film utilizes the “vignette by name” approach, “borrowed” from Pulp Fiction. Holmes, Polley, Wolf and Mohr, and Askew all have their own character-titled vignettes. We follow them as they both alternate within each other’s stories and venture out during the night to face what was in store. The true stars, to me (I just love Polley in this movie, though) are the supporting actors in the vignettes. Fichtner as the obvious “in closet” DEA cop, Krokowski as Fichtner’s demure wife (their interest in Wolf and Mohr and how its developed to be something it really isn’t is a real treat), Diggs (and that jacket that has Vegas folks believing he is a car parker and restroom attendant!) as Askew’s beleaguered bud in Vegas, and the dynamic, charismatic Olyphant who can take the sleaziest of characters and make them magnetic all feature quite well in the vignettes, leeching interest from the main stars. 

Doug Liman has directed some popular films like The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so the pacing and velocity of the film is of no surprise. Being able to alternate and manage so many stories and characters, as the script demands full attention, is a skill that Liman does effortlessly. I return to this film from time to time, because like the young actors, I was their age at the time, so the waves of time have done well for some of them (Olyphant and Fichtner, in particular; Polley has proven she can make films not just act in them), while others (Holmes, Diggs) have done okay but not as remarkably. 

I have to say that I thought the Wolf and Mohr vignette was my favorite, although Polley (trying to keep from being evicted, desperately does what she can to make up some quick cash, and ends up waking up in a hospital room with a limp and headache; her scene as she makes her way to her register the next morning is a hoot) left quite an impression and is quite attractive. 

If not all that spectacular, Go remains a fond experience I remember watching during my early twenties. With a good sense of humor, not reducing itself to a graphic body-count dark comedy (it could have been easy to follow Pulp Fiction on that route, too), and everyday characters that find themselves in awkward situations, fate allowing most of them to escape relatively unscathed (but not without battle scars and a little anxiety), I can think of less deserving films to bide my time. I have to say that I think Holmes’ never quite making an impact in her career is a bit disappointing, because flashes are seen here. She has a pleasant smile and cute face, but that wow factor didn’t ever quite materialize.