REVIEWS

"GO"

I was kinda worried about this movie. I'm sick of movies where drugs are portrayed as cool, and the previews made it seem like it was like that. As it turned out, the movie showed lots of characters who thought drugs were cool, but they were also portrayed as complete morons. Don't get me wrong, "Go" doesn't even come close to being preachy, but... well, it's hard to explain without ruining it. Just rest assured that in this movie, drugs are FAR from cool, and most of the people who wanna get high are so UNcool, it's funny.

"Go" features a cast of upcoming young stars, like Katie Holmes (the cute one in "Dawson's Creek"), Taye Diggs (the young Jamaican who caught the eye of Angela Bassett in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), Scott Wolf ("Bailey" in "Party of Five"), Jay Mohr (the sleazy agent guy in "Jerry Maguire"), James Duvall (the guy plays the same character in every movie... most notably, he was Rose McGowan's boyfriend in "The Doom Generation"), and Sarah Polley (a great young Canadian actress who's not well-known in the United States, but she was in a couple of excellent movies directed by Atom Egoyan... "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter"). Jane Krakowski ("Elaine" the nosy secretary in "Ally McBeal") and William Fichtner (he was the blind astronomer in "Contact," and in "Armageddon," he was the astronaut who was the sorta "bad guy") played a very unusual married couple. The acting was excellent all around, especially by Sarah Polley. She isn't "Hollywood" pretty, but she does have a strange appeal... I can't quite figure out what it is, though. William Fichtner was really good, and had the funniest parts of the movie. Taye Diggs was also very good, but I was wondering why his character would be hanging around such losers.

"Go" was directed by Doug Liman, and he directed "Swingers" before this. He certainly knows how to direct, and there were moments of pure brilliance that he gets total credit for. Namely the scene where Polley's character is in a drug dealer's apartment and he turns up the music. I know I gave a vague description there, but I hate spoilers. Anyway, the rave scenes looked extremely authentic, but since I've never been to a rave (and don't plan to), and my exposure to clubs is extremely limited, I'm not an authority on the subject. It sure as hell LOOKED realistic, though. As far as the script, it was written by John August, who I never heard of. I know that he wrote and directed a movie called "God," but I know nothing of it.

I liked "Go." It was unique take on "Pulp Fiction" rip-offs (like that contradiction?), and I really liked the concept. My biggest problem was that the ending was a big letdown. There was no kinda payoff. It just sorta... ended. Still, unlike the horrible "Reality Bites" and pathetic "Empire Records," "Go" was cool without being "cool." Ya get me?

Scale of 1-10: 7