Movie Gazette

Go is one of those supposedly edgy teen movies that centres around drugs and violence, however this tripe thinks it is far more clever and loveable than it actually is. The film follows a day in the life of a set of douchebags (to coin an American phrase but it seems to fit well) from three different points of view. There’s eighteen-year-old Ronna who’s got no money to pay her rent because she spends it on drugs, so she becomes a drug-dealer and double-crosses the local drug kingpin (Olyphant). Irritating English wideboy Simon (Askew) goes on a bender to Las Vegas with his mates and ends up inexplicably having a threesome (the good kind) and shooting a bouncer at a strip-club. Finally, we have gay couple and actors Adam (Wolf) and Zack (Mohr) who participate in a police drugs sting to make amends for their own illegal indiscretions.

All these intertwining strands come together but in the most simple and contrived ways and with a total lack of satisfaction from any sudden realisation that needs to accompany that kind of concept. Doug Liman tries so hard to make Go edgy and cool. There are drug deals, shootings and car accidents but absolutely no-one dies or gets arrested which removes the danger element and the nicey-nice characters struggle to convincingly portray people that would shoot people in an argument or steal a car.  There’s a happy ending allround where the ‘good’ guys and their enemies practically sit down with tea and biscuits for a jolly sing-a-long. Sugar-coated happy endings are not edgy.

The acting is really poor but the actors aren’t given much of a chance by the dialogue and characterisation. The banter is forced and the chemistry between friends is non-existent as they all just act like cold, cruel strangers to each other.  Considering the harrowing things that happen to these people, they never really seem that scared and drift through the film on a wave of monotony. If somebody so much as pops a balloon behind me I will soil my pants but this lot nochalantly wisecrack when standing in front of a pistol or speeding car which is completely against how the characters are portrayed. The thing is, they are irritating teenagers, not James Bond. On the other hand, Go is occassionally tittersomely funny, I’ll give it that.

Go is a really terrible attempt at the teenage druggie category and, Lord knows why, some people compare this rubbish to Pulp Fiction. I would say it’s like a cross between Pulp Fiction and going on holiday to Weston-Super-Mare with your Grandparents.