Go (1999)

With an intertwining three-story structure similar to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Doug Liman has crafted a nutty montage of episodes that's as invigorating as the electronica music that fuels the soundtrack. Go hops in and out of a Christmas rave in Los Angeles, each of its characters connected in some way to three supermarket clerks by day, clubgoers by night, who entertain themselves by doing whippets in the stock room and playing celebrity word games. A truly ensemble piece, in which no character has more than 30 minutes of screen time, Go alternates between funny twist-of-fate happenstance and violent, dark humor, all the while remaining essentially lighthearted. One of the first mainstream films to use the drug Ecstasy as a major plot element, the film's stance embodies the contradictory nature of that drug, both glamorizing the experience and providing a disorienting first-person view of the dangerous sensory overload that follows from popping too many pills. The screenplay by John August includes plot twists as fresh as the hip crew of young actors who populate the film. The standouts are Sarah Polley as the fast-thinking Ronna, who double crosses some pretty nasty characters to try to pay her rent, and Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf as a pair of panicked actors who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Desmond Askew's oblivious Vegas romp is also memorable fun. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide