Go (1999)

Starring - Katie Holmes; Sarah Polley; Suzanne Krull; Desmond Askew & Nathan Bexton Director - Doug Liman MPAA - Rated R for strong drug content, sexuality, language and some violence. When I sat down to watch Go, I must admit that I was expecting yet another in a long line of teen-oriented movies which have been popping up recently; that is to say long on style and very short on substance. At first it seemed as though that was what I was in store for. The movie started out a little on the slow side (read lame). The director seemed more interested in showing off music video style camera work than actually trying to tell a story. Happily, the movie steadily improved to the point where it ended up being a very good film. Due in no small part to its excellent young cast (some of whom, I had never heard of before). Go is basically three intersecting stories. They all start at more or less the same point and then later converge in much the same point. All work very well on their own and the fact that they all combine in the end is simply icing on a very pleasant cake. There are no predominant stars in Go. All of the cast have pretty decent sized roles. If I had to focus in on a few as the main leads Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr come to mind. Polley and Holmes play supermarket check out girls who are approached by soap-opera starts Wolf and Mohr who are looking to score a few drugs for a party that they are having. Polley and Holmes then try to procure the drugs for the two actors but things don't go exactly as planned. This is a gross simplification of the plot of the movie but to explain it in any greater detail would risk spoiling it. It would also take a couple of paragraphs. Acting wise, Go is almost without fault. With the exception of one minor character who got on my nerves a bit, the cast is amazing. Many will be familiar with Scott Wolf from TV's Party Of Five. Anyone that has watched TV's Dawson's Creek is no doubt familiar with the talent of Katie Holmes, who ranks very high in my book as one of Hollywood's most talented young stars. To hear US film critics talk; Sarah Polley has just magically appeared out of nowhere. Canadians have been aware of Ms. Polley's considerable talent for quite some time, so it comes as no shock to anyone that she gives a standout performance in this her first major American film. I'm guessing that those same critics forgot her performance in the Academy Award-nominated The Sweet Hereafter in 1997. My only complaint was with some of the bad camera work in the early part of the movie. To be honest, I don't think it really improved all that much as the movie went on, but the story was so compelling that the poor direction wasn't such a major issue. It's sad that Hollywood seems to thin that the only way to keep a young audience's attention is to direct a film like a music video. Herky jerky camera moves works well in a 3 minute music video, but it gets real old real fast in a feature length movie. Go is cleverly written and frequently funny, although some of the scenes do miss the mark. I would say that Go is certainly the smartest movie that I have seen in 1999. It will probably rank among the best of the teen-type films released this year. If nothing else, it gives stars Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf and the rest of the very talented cast a showcase for their ample acting abilities. 8/10 - Clever story and cast, only detracted from by the director's MTV-style camera work. Reviewed April 12, 1999 by Joe Chamberlain