Fiction a Go-Go

reviewed Sat, 24 Apr 1999 21:28:59 EDT

Go is a movie that needs an exclamation point after its title if ever I saw one (like the one I saw last night -- Boom! -- ask me about it sometime, cause it's not really an experience that comes through in print, but I can tell you that Tiffany spotted Fred Schneider from the B-52s after the movie and got her picture taken with him). Anyway, unlike Boom!, Go has the giddy, invigorated energy that screams "!!" (Boom! just had a booze-addled Elizabeth Taylor screaming.)

It's got a terrific young cast (hello, Taye Diggs, where have you been all my life?), a pulsing soundtrack, and a jittery excitement that runs through the three intertwined, overlapping tales. Surprisingly, it takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it never pauses for breath again. It's been compared a lot to Pulp Fiction, and it's got the same non-linear structure, the same sharp black humor, the same sudden and shocking turns into tragedy. There are even specific scenes that echo Pulp's -- in a coffee shop, in a drug dealer's apartment (and given director Doug Liman's homage to Martin Scorsese in Swingers, I'm assuming the similarity is meant to be noticed). But it doesn't feel derivative -- more like a playful riff. (And for those of you who were turned off by Pulp Fiction, rest assured, Go isn't anywhere near as sick or violent.) And it's got more laugh-out-loud humor -- an Ecstasy-fueled hallucination in a supermarket brought tears to my eyes (and not just because it's set to the "Macarena").

So what's my recommendation? "GO!"

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