Movies you might have missed: Go

Doug Liman's follow-up to ‘Swingers’ is one of the few efforts inspired by Quentin Tarantino in the 1990s that actually stands up to scrutiny

Timothy Olyphant plays a drug dealer in Doug Liman's fine 1999 film

There are plenty of options for those looking to enjoy a festive treat in the coming days, such as It’s a Wonderful Life, a film that one can never watch too many times, or The Muppet Christmas Carol, the definitive take on Charles Dickens’s classic and one of the finest family films in existence. And those looking for a Hanukkah gem should check out The Hebrew Hammer, surely the only “jewsploitation” picture in cinema history.

Doug Liman’s Go (1999), is set around Christmas and is the perfect alternative option that is probably not one for the whole family to enjoy.

Liman has since made his name with big-budget blockbusters such as The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow, but his debut, Swingers, was a comedy-drama made on a shoestring budget that influenced an entire generation of filmmakers. Go, his follow-up, while not as iconic, is one of the few efforts inspired by Quentin Tarantino in the 1990s that actually stands up to scrutiny.

Like an American cousin of the previous year’s Run Lola Run, Go tells the story of the aftermath of a drug deal from three different points of view. Writer John August knew Liman was the man for the job after seeing Swingers but, astonishingly, financing fell through because the film lacked a “bankable white male star”. Fortunately Columbia pictures stepped in and provided the money.

The film could not be more Nineties if it was doing the Macarena while holding a Tamagotchi. The soundtrack includes songs by Len, No Doubt and Natalie Imbruglia while Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr play prominent roles. Liman brings an energy and vitality to the material that ensures the pace is frenetic throughout and the ensemble cast delivers the goods, not least a young Timothy Olyphant in the years before Deadwood and Justified.

In a sense, this film works better now than it did at the time since it no longer finds itself lumped in with the rest of the Tarantino imitators of the period. “Youthquake” has been declared the word of the year for 2017, and yet this beguiling mix of music, fashion and culture suggests it could just as easily apply to a film from the tail end of the last millennium. August has said: “It’s fundamentally a story about what it’s like to be 20 years old. A bunch of wild stuff happens, but then at the end of the day, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go back to work.”

This doubles as a perfect description of the Christmas period for many of us. The last word, however, should go to the final line of the film: “So, what are we doing for New Year’s?”