Go

Go; Thriller comedy, USA, 1999; D: Doug Liman, S: Sarah Polley, Nathan Bexton, Jay Mohr, Katie Holmes

Los Angeles, Christmas. 1 story, 3 perspectives: clerk Ronna works in her store the whole day, but still decides to take Simon's shift since he is going to Las Vegas. Since she desperately needs money for her apartment, she borrows drugs from a friend to sell it, and leaves Claire at his place as the insurance that she will return. Ronna throws away drugs when she figures that the buyers are police officers, so she returns aspirin, that looks like drug, to her friend. He realizes he has been tricked while she gets hit by a car...In Las Vegas, Simon breaks the rule when he touches lap dancers, so he gets into trouble. He wounds the owner who is chasing him...Adam and Zack, with the help of the police, set up a trap for Ronna, but she throws away her drug and escapes. The policeman invites them to dinner. Adam and Zack accidentally hit Ronna with their car, but she survives and gets to the hospital. Simon allows the owner to wound him to "settle the score".

Even though episodic, and even though it doesn't have such an original triple story blending into one, those who saw "Go" realized that the film isn't a waste of time. Director Doug Liman, author of the acclaimed comedy "Swingers", leads one story through three perspectives, and the best one is the excellent first one: in the opening, the typical "Columbia Pictures" logo shows up, but he playfully inserts a scene of people dancing in a disco, then again returns the logo, and then again switches to the disco, which is a genius "interference" trick. The tangle where Ronna is selling drugs is full of brilliant dialogues ("Don't artificially worry yourself" or "I would never double cross you like that!" - "And how would you double cross me, then?") as well as situations that were cleverly written (a car hits her so powerfully that she ends lying on its roof!). The second story is lethargic and only deserves a 6/10 grade, never quite managing to recapture the flair of the opening act, but the last story saves the movie as a whole because it returns to the shrill original tone, whereas Jay Mohr is especially in top-notch shape as well as the neat conclusion to the previous stories and episodes.

Grade:+++