Tuesday, April 09, 2019

5 Off My Head: New, You're Still So New

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It's the 20th anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all time today! Doug Liman's Go came out on April 9th 1999 -- aka the greatest year of movies in our lives; have you voted in the poll yet? Go often gets lumped in with the Pulp Fiction rip-offs that swamped the cinemas of the late 1990s but timeline jumps and multi-POVs aside it's so much more than that, or it's at least the very best of that. To be honest I like it more than Pulp Fiction and you can stick that in your day-glo alien sippy-cup and smoke it.

Anyway I was in college when it came out and I was doing a shit-ton of drugs at the time (hey kids don't do drugs or whatever) and this movie is my American Graffiti -- my Diner, my Grease. It captured one of the happiest times of my life and turned it into a big fun blast of cinema with a huge cast of characters played by a huge cast of up and coming or perfectly of their moment actors. Sarah Polley, Timothy Olyphant, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, William Fichtner, Nathan Bexton, Scott Wolf, Jane Krakowski, Taye Diggs, Breckin Mayer, James Duval, Melissa motherfuckin' McCarthy! I mean!

Oh and it's got a soundtrack for the ages...
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... I honestly get a little bit of a high just hearing that song. If you guys knew how much ecstasy I took while listening to the Go soundtrack in 1999-2000 you would weep for my brain cells, but I wouldn't trade them back for those memories I barely retain anymore thanks to all the drugs for the world.

Anyway a happy 20 to a still great film, 
and in its honor, a list!

My 5 Favorite Line Readings in Go

"How would you fuck me?"

"Look how far it got you."

"Gay men are so hot. It's tragic."

"So Zach. Would you say
you're open to new things?"

"There was this one time, you missed each other 
by like three minutes. It was SO exciting!"

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How much do you love Go?
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8 comments:

Simon said...

Great movie. I was happy to have Sarah Polley do a big American movie and then I was even happier a few years later when she gave that up to focus on making her own smaller thoughtful projects.

I played the shit outta that soundtrack in high school. Especially that Esthero song

Anonymous said...

Sarah Polley is great in this movie, as the girl who knows she shouldn't make the smart-ass remark in any given situation, but just can't resist.

Also:
"That bracelet of mine you're wearing? That's an accessory. You are just some chick who's sitting in an apartment."

"It helps if you smoke a LOT of pot with it. Like...a lot."

J.D. said...

I used to love the No Doubt song. So iconic

Anonymous said...

WEHT Nathan Bexton? Such a pretty little thing . . . .

Dave S said...

Rewatched this weekend 0 still fun but didn't totally hold up for me. I think it's telling that none of your picks are from the middle segment, which is a real slog.

Anonymous said...

Love "New."

Can't remember McCarthy in that film at all.

Another favorite line from Diggs: "Okay, Rhythm Nation."

Scott said...

Great soundtrack, and fun movie. Parts of it are still great - but yeah, I don't think the Vegas part holds up either. I really like the Wolf & Mohr, Fichtner, and Holmes and Olyphant sections. And Bexton is someone I wish had hit bigger - but hey, there are always the Araki movies.

Anonymous said...

Pretty much the same here, right down to preferring this to Pulp Fiction but finding the Vegas section dragged a little. Although the guy running around nude and forced to negotiate with the small child he'd annoyed earlier was pretty fun and it set up the finale, which marks the one time I genuinely loved Katie Holmes in a film. Do I have to be the only one to admit that Olyphant gave me a minor fetish for smirking bad boys in Santa hats and sweats.

Sarah Polley is on my list of actresses I hope will have Liam Neeson style second careers doing cheesy action flicks.