Go (1999 film)
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| Go | |
|---|---|
 The poster for Go |
|
| Directed by | Doug Liman |
| Produced by | Matt Freeman Mickey Liddell Paul Rosenberg |
| Written by | John August |
| Starring | Sarah Polley Desmond Askew Scott Wolf Katie Holmes Jay Mohr William Fichtner |
| Music by | BT |
| Cinematography | Doug Liman |
| Editing by | Stephen Mirrione |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1999 (USA) |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,500,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Go is a 1999 film directed by Doug Liman, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Katie Holmes | Claire Montgomery |
| Sarah Polley | Ronna Martin |
| Suzanne Krull | Stringy Haired Woman |
| Desmond Askew | Simon Baines |
| Nathan Bexton | Mannie |
| Robert Peters | Switterman |
| Scott Wolf | Adam |
| Jay Mohr | Zack |
| Timothy Olyphant | Todd Gaines |
| Jodi Bianca Wise | Ballerina Girl |
| William Fichtner | Burke |
| Rita Bland | Dancing Register Woman |
| Tony Denman | Track Suit Guy |
| Scott Hass | Raver Dude |
| Natasha Melnick | Anorexic Girl |
[edit] Plot summary
The movie is told out of chronological format, with one of the last scenes appearing first and the story being told from four different points of view. As such, the following summary only generalizes the actual sequence of events which took place.
Adam and Zack, a couple of soap opera actors, have been busted for narcotics possession. In a plea deal, they offer to help Officer Burke set up a sting operation for a small-time drug dealer named Simon, who deals ecstasy from his cash register at a local grocery store.
Unbeknownst to them, however, Simon has taken a vacation to Las Vegas. Filling in at his cash register is his coworker Ronna, who is facing eviction and therefore financially desperate for the extra paid hours of income. When they ask about Simon and where they can buy a supply of ecstasy, Ronna finds herself a lucrative financial opportunity. She offers to "see what she can do" for them, taking down the their address for delivery to a rave pre-party that night.
After work, Ronna and a couple of her coworker friends (Claire and Mannie), debate the underground drug trade "rules", such as circumventing Simon to become competing dealers themselves. Ronna decides that this will be a one-time deal while Simon is gone, and proceed to Simon's drug supplier, Todd.
Todd is suspicious of Ronna's sudden interest in dealing drugs, the fact that she is doing so around Simon, and that the quantity she has requested is the exact amount to constitute drug trafficking. Reluctantly, he offers to sell the drugs to Ronna for a higher price. Ronna, unprepared for the price hike, offers to leave collateral in exchange for bringing the unpaid sum back to Todd after her party sale is complete. Noting that he "already has a Swatch", Ronna convinces a reluctant Claire to stay at Todd's apartment until the sale is complete.
Ronna and Mannie then proceed to Adam and Zack's party. Ronna goes inside to complete the deal, while Mannie stays in the car and overdoses on some of the pills he swiped from the bottle.
Inside at the "party", Ronna realizes something is wrong. There's only Adam and Zack behaving uncomfortably, along with an older man (Officer Burke, playing an undercover role) seemingly overly focused on finishing the drug deal. Burke offers Ronna a beer, claiming they are out of the orange juice requested by Ronna. Remembering the vast amounts of orange juice that Adam and Zack purchased at the grocery store earlier in the day, Ronna realizes that Burke is lying. Burke's story about needing the drugs is also different from the story she heard from Adam and Zack at the grocery store. Feeling that something is very wrong with the situation, she asks to use restroom before completing the deal. When Zack turns to show Ronna the way to the bathroom, he silently whispers "Go!" to her. She goes into the bathroom, flushes the drugs down the toilet, and emerges empty-handed. She tells Burke that she wasn't able to obtain the drugs at all, and to defend herself from further scrutiny, notes to Burke that she is underage to be drinking the beer he gave her. Realizing he is now on surveillance giving alcohol to a minor and without further evidence to hold her, Burke lets Ronna go.
Ronna, in a state of panic, ponders her situation with Mannie, who is slowly succumbing to the effects of the overdose. She doesn't have the money to buy Claire's release from Todd, and she doesn't have the drugs to sell. In a fit of desperation, she shoplifts a large supply of over-the-counter medication from her own grocery store. Finding pills that are roughly the same appearance as the ecstasy pills, she refills Todd's bottle and returns to his apartment. She explains to Todd that the deal fell through, gives the substituted pills back to him, and frees Claire.
Ronna realizes that she's still facing eviction, and decides to attend the night's rave to sell the remaining medication as ecstasy. Unknown to her, however, Todd has already discovered the fake pills. Knowing that Ronna would be attending the rave that night, Todd shows up to settle his score from being scammed. He tracks Ronna down into the parking lot, has a few last words with Ronna about the nature of the illegal drug trade, and takes out a gun. At that moment, a driver lost in the parking lot swerves around a corner and squarely hits Ronna, sending her flying into a nearby ditch. The driver, in panic from seeing Todd with gun in hand, flees the scene. Todd, seeing Ronna lying wounded in the ditch, leaves her for dead.
[edit] Reaction
Critics generally found Go's fast pace and light-hearted feel appealing, and the film received a 90% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes (83% from the cream of the crop) [1]. The film made a profit at box office grossing $28.4 million against a $20 million budget.
Because of its irreverant and frequently off-topic dialogue, fast pace, rapidly changing point of view, and achronological format, the film generally categorized as one of many movies of varying quality that attempted to capture the same style of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. However, unlike many of the films in the subgenre the comparisons were mostly favorable, with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stating that "[Go] is an entertaining, clever black comedy that takes place entirely in Tarantino-land." [1]
[edit] Trivia
The word "go" is also a slang term for ecstasy[2][3]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Go at the Internet Movie Database
- Go at Box Office Mojo
- Go at Rotten Tomatoes
