Go

Director: Doug Liman
Screenwriters: John August

Institute History

  • 1999 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Through a boggled drug sting, holiday rave, road trip to Las Vegas, and one very bizarre dinner party, Go spins an urban tale while its characters spin out of control. A gritty comedy tracing three interconnected stories, told over two days and one wild night, Go enlists an unconventional structure that allows you to tag along with the action in the most thrilling way possible.
Each part of the triplicate story begins at the precise same moment—a shift change in a grocery store in Los Angeles a few days before Christmas. Ronna is a seventeen-year-old supermarket clerk, down on her luck, with eviction staring her in the face and her first drug deal in the works. Her coworker Simon is a nice-enough kid, so why does everything he touches turn to trouble? Adam and Zack are the third part of the equation, two soap stars with reasons of their own to enter the store at this particular moment.
Go is the perfect follow-up for director Doug Liman after his critically acclaimed Swingers. He is a master at capturing the angst driving each story and letting the intrigue build organically; each retelling changes your perception. Paired with John August’s clever, insightful writing, Liman infuses the action with a playful dark reality found only in modern Los Angeles. The cast is young and dynamic, giving an added jolt of authenticity. Go unfolds like an intricate puzzle: All the pieces are there; the fun is in anticipating how they fit together.


Doug Liman, Director
Doug Liman gained prominence with his first released film, the critically acclaimed Swingers, on which he served as director and cinematographer. Liman began making short films while still in junior high. He studied at New York’s International Center of Photography and attended Brown University, where he cofounded the student-run cable televsion station and served as its first manager. He attended the graduate film program at USC, where he was tapped to helm his first project, the comedy thriller Getting In.

— John Cooper

Screening Details

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