From acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" to hip filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown" and including other films such as "Courage Under Fire" and the recent "Hilary and Jackie," audiences nearly always get a kick out of films that slam on their cinematic brakes, back up, and then tell the same story again but from another perspective.
The effect, while initially jarring to moviegoers unaccustomed to and/or unprepared for such temporal trickery, often gives filmmakers the chance to bring greater depth to their works and almost always makes them more interesting, intriguing and definitely more entertaining. Such is the case with director Doug Liman's sophomore outing, "Go," an entertaining romp that twists and turns and coils around itself in so many ways that it just keeps getting better the longer it progresses.
In what could essentially be called "Pulp Fiction Lite" -- and that's not a bad thing -- the film involves several groups of young adults whose lives get incredibly tangled due to one pivotal event that in the end affects all of them and continues to snowball into bigger proportions. Told in three separate, but obviously interrelated stories, the film has that funky "Pulp Fiction" feel and will most likely draw favorable comparisons to Tarantino's masterful film.
Like that film, however, this one's dark and edgy comic qualities and adult material mean that not all audiences will appreciate its plot or characters -- although this one's far less intense and a bit more fun -- and those not prepared or willing to be entertained by its black humor should probably avoid it.
That said, the film is never boring in the slightest and zips along at such a lively clip that you'll probably be surprised how quickly it's over. A great deal of that can be attributed to the fact that it sucks you so far into its multi-tiered story that you quickly lose track of time.
While it has that admirable attribute, it doesn't have the razor sharp and highly entertaining dialogue that Tarantino so masterfully used in his similar film, although traces of it -- including a funny rant about the comic strip, "Family Circus" -- are present in freshman writer John August's script. Nor does it have the established cast and strong performances that made "Pulp Fiction" a classic and garnered some Oscar nods.
What it does have, however, is that fast-paced tempo and a cast of what could be up and coming stars that makes the entire proceedings extremely palatable. Though the quantity of performers and storylines prevents any of them from standing out, the performances are good especially when considering what's asked of them and the fact that little character development is present (although very little is needed in a film like this).
Fresh off her appearance in "The Sweet Hereafter," actress Sarah Polley is quite enjoyable as the disfranchised young woman who resorts to underhanded behavior to pay the rent, while Timothy Olyphant ("Scream 2") plays what's probably the closest to a Tarantino-inspired character in the film.
British actor Desmond Askew is quite funny as the expatriate who experiences a trip to Vegas he soon won't forget and Scott Wolf (TV's "Party of Five") and Jay Mohr ("Mafia!") -- the best known of the performers present -- are good as the befuddled buddies whose lives become more complicated as the story progresses. Performances by the rest of the cast -- including Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs and William Fichtner as a narc who continually gets creepier by the minute until a funny revelation occurs -- are good across the board.
It's the wild, serpentine script, however, that will inevitably draw the most raves. From some hilarious ecstasy fueled hallucinations involving a hyped up macarena dance number and a cat that talks to a character via subtitles, to a fun car chase sequence played out to Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride," director Doug Liman (who directed the fun "Swingers" and served as cinematographer for both films) has made sure to complement what's still a relatively unorthodox story style with some entertaining bits.
Even so, what makes the film so much fun is the sheer vitality and zest at which it proceeds and the clever way in which everything twists back around itself and eventually ties its elements together. So many films nowadays have such lackluster and predictable plots that it's a welcomed breath of fresh air when one comes along and shakes things up a bit. With such events transpiring, many will probably feel that the film deserves a second viewing just to catch everything and see how it's all connected.
Although it's certainly not a film for all audiences and is clearly targeted at the older teen/college aged crowds, this film about people involved in bad things is done in such a fun and quirky way that it's highly entertaining. While no Oscar contender like "Pulp Fiction," it's a nonstop blast to watch and will constantly amuse receptive audiences with its fun script. For that reason, we give "Go" a 7 out of 10.