For Edgy Fun, It’S A Solid ‘Go’
Go”? Go.
A profane, turbo-charged comedy about unscrupulous drug dealers and their unscrupulouser customers, “Go” is a visual and verbal funhouse. The characters speak a pop-culture-influenced slanguage that keeps you on your toes (for instance, when one woman tells a friend, “Don’t get all 818 on me,” it helps if you know that 818 is the area code of suburban — and, thus, unhip — Los Angeles). And the way the movie is put together, with showy, out-of-control camera movements and a narrative that keeps turning around on itself to reveal new angles of the story, is equally bold.
The movie is bound to be compared to “Pulp Fiction,” because of its show-offy, storytelling confidence, and to “Trainspotting,” because it’s an anti-drug movie that some will interpret as pro-drug because it lacks an obvious, this-is-your-brain-on-drugs moment. Both comparisons work, but “Go” is more light-hearted, with a turn-on-a-dime sense of humor and genuine suspense.
Storywise, “Go” is just an excuse to get a bunch of people in hot water that keeps getting hotter. It starts when Ronna (the gifted Sarah Polley, from “The Sweet Hereafter”) double-crosses the wrong pusher, a decision that sends three sets of amoral characters careening around Las Vegas, trying to get their hands on money or dope or both (if there is one decent person on the whole West Coast, “Go” hasn’t located him or her — in a typical moment, one guy says, “We did the right thing. Approximately”).
“Go” twists us around its little finger, convincing us we’re seeing one thing when we’re really seeing another and casually inserting little pieces of information that turn out to be crucial. The beautifully constructed script, in which every seeming inconsistency is explained, is as simple and as complex as a Mobius strip, and watching the characters figure out their places on the strip is giddy, creepy fun.
`GO’ Location: East Sprague, Newport, Coeur d’Alene Cinemas Credits: Directed by Doug Liman; starring Sarah Polley, Timothy Olyphant, Katie Holmes Running time: 1:40 Rating: R