GO turns 25. The 90s most hidden gem of all.

1999 was flush with iconic movies. I've already talked about several of them, with many more to come.

The spring of that year was a particularly great time. It's hard to explain if you weren't there. And no film gets across that feeling of that time better than Doug Liman's Go, truly one of the most underrated films of all time. And possibly my absolute favorite film of that year.

Unlike so many of those 1999 classics, Go was not a hit at the time, nor quick to become a huge cult film. I still feel like a lot of people simply do not know about this film at all.

The film came to be during the aftermath of both the indie film boom, and the Tarantino explosion. So many films came out after Pulp Fiction, aping aspects of that game changer, be it the colorful dialogue or the non-linear storytelling. Go was a little different, since it was mostly not about anybody living that criminal life. But it had the quirky dialogue and structure.

The film had some cache due to its director. Doug Liman is known now for a lot of big action movies like The Bourne Identity and Edge Of Tomorrow, but back then he was coming off Swingers, one of the big cult hits of the 90s. That clout helped him assemble a cool cast of rising stars. Chief among them for me, of course, was Katie Holmes, who in the spring of 1999 was rocketing up my faves list. She actually grabbed this role before Dawson's Creek event started airing. This was peak actress fandom times, so anytime one of the big ones was in any movie it was a major event.

But beyond her the cast was also very stacked. There was Sarah Polley, then coming off of a movie called The Sweet Hereafter. There was Timothy Olyphant coming off of Scream 2. There was Scott Wolf, then still going very strong on Party of Five (still my 2nd or 3rd favorite show at that time). There was Taye Diggs, who had recently broken out in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The vet in the cast was probably Breckin Meyer. There is even a one scene movie debut by Melissa McCarthy.

With this fun cast in place, you then have Go's non-linear structure. Written by John August, who has kept working but never on anything this good again, the film takes place at Christmas (yes, it's a sneaky Christmas movie), with 3 sometimes overlapping storylines.

Bookended by Holmes, first we get her and Polley running afoul of Olyphant's drug dealer. Middle act is Diggs, Meyer and a couple other guys (including total newcomer Desmond Askew in his one moment) traveling to Vegas and having a crazy adventure. Then the final third has Wolf and Jay Mohr having a strange Christmas with cop William Fichtner. And then a little coda with Holmes that wraps it all up. 

One of Go's great strengths is that none of these segments are really any better or worse than the others. I'm naturally partial to the Holmes/Polley stuff, but the Vegas segment is wildly entertaining, and the last act is probably the funniest. This wild movie ends up having one of its highlights at a Christmas dinner table. It also has one of the most enjoyable car chase sequences you will see. Liman saved a lot of the budget just for that part. 

I'm still not sure I have ever seen one of these multi-story structures applied to a movie that isn't about crime. Yeah there's crimes committed in the movie, but even the one actual criminal character is just a local lowlife type. It's a shenanigans movie, largely a full blown comedy.

Everyone in the cast is great, even people I've never really liked before or since (looking at you Mohr). Highlights for me are Holmes (of course), Polley (effortlessly cool), Fichtner and Askew (like an escaped Trainspotting character).

The propulsive energy and swagger the film has owes much to its soundtrack, also one of the best of its era. No Doubt did one of their best songs, New, for the movie. And that peerless catchy Steal My Sunshine? This movie gave that to us.

Go is just a complete package...and yet it somehow was a complete flop. I mean, nobody in it was a massive star yet, and that still mattered then, and the movie didn't really launch anybody that much. It got good reviews. It wasn't my fault it flopped. Even though it didn't last long in theaters I saw it 4 times. And I quickly snapped up the DVD and have watched the film many times since. I'm sure this is one of my most rewatched 1999 films.

Honestly though, all these years later, I kind of like that there is this awesome movie that isn't talked about much and that a lot of people don't even know exists. It's like my own private classic.