We used to get movies like this all the time. 1994’s Pulp Fiction spurred a wave of imitators from the obvious to the forgotten, where a whole generation of character actors got to chew scenery, be irresponsible with firearms, and rant about pop-culture ephemera while they committed a bunch of dumb crimes. It’s as crucial an element to understanding the ’90s as Nirvana or the Super Nintendo.
1999’s Go is one of the best movies that relatively few people have heard of. It’s a post-Tarantino crime caper with an all-star cast, playing a selection of petty criminals, random disasters, and desperate kids who collide around Christmastime in Los Angeles. If you’re looking for a comedy of errors to watch over the long weekend, now’s a great time to catch Go while it’s on Netflix.
Go has become a cult hit over the years, but it initially fell victim to a simple case of bad timing. It hit theaters in April 1999, a little over a week after The Matrix came out. Go made a little money at the box office and got some decent reviews, but it simply never stood a chance. In terms of cultural retention, it was a coughing baby to The Matrix‘s hydrogen bomb.
Go is an anthology film in three parts, influenced by both Pulp Fiction and Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train.
In the first story, Ronna (Sarah Polley) is a supermarket employee who’s facing eviction. She gets an opportunity to make some fast cash when a couple of random strangers hit her up for drugs. Ronna doesn’t make a habit of dealing drugs, but she’s confident enough she can get something to sell.
In the second story, Adam and Zack (Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr) are soap opera actors who’ve recently been busted for drug possession. Instead of being arrested, they’ve been sent back out to entrap their usual dealer. Instead of that dealer, they find Ronna, who’s perfectly willing to take advantage of their desperation.
Finally, in the third story, we follow Ronna’s co-worker Simon (Desmond Askew), who is also Adam and Zack’s ecstasy dealer. He’s currently on a road trip to Vegas that’s gone out of control. Simon ends up fleeing the city with a couple of vengeful strip club bouncers on his tail.
All three stories intersect repeatedly over the course of one night in Los Angeles, centered on an all-night rave, with several other characters caught in the resulting crossfire.
Go is a low-stakes, high-velocity movie that’s surprisingly consistent despite all its moving parts. It’s anchored by solid dialogue, a breakneck pace, and a series of star-making performances by several actors who were unknown at the time.
In 2026, Go is a who’s-who of “hey, it’s that guy!” with early performances from Timothy Olyphant (if you mostly know him from Justified, it’s weird to see him in Go playing a scumbag drug dealer), Melissa McCarthy (Saturday Night Live, Bridesmaids), and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), alongside Katie Holmes at the height of her Dawson’s Creek fame, pre-Robot Chicken Breckin Meyer, and Taye Diggs (Rent, Equilibrium) stealing every scene he’s in.
Image: Columbia Pictures
Looking back, Go arguably marks the end of an era. The one-two punch of Blade and The Matrix went on to define the 2000s as a blasted hellscape of techno and tight leather, which abruptly drove quirky crime movies like Go out of fashion. We’d reliably get at least four to six movies like Go every year, but after 1999, everything shifted to slow-motion fight scenes and high-speed chases. Even Tarantino himself got into the act with Kill Bill in 2004.
If you accept that argument, then Go sends the post-Pulp Fiction crime movie off with a bang. It’s built close to the ground, about truly petty crimes, and is often hilarious, with a good blend of star-making performances and quotable lines. Be sure to catch it while you can.