Go

<<<Return to List

One of the best moments about being a teen, in my opinion, is finishing high school. The final day of classes and knowing you were free and done with school for the rest of your life, was an indescribable feeling. In fact, there’s a film on this list that ties in nicely with that major milestone, but I will save that for last. So, in going out of sequence slightly, let me tell you about the first year out of high school, when I was 18 going on 19.

Technically becoming an adult, with an ID to confirm that and the ability to get up and go where you want and when you want, is the greatest novelty in the world when you experience it for the first time. I didn’t do much for my 18^th birthday, but once I did turn that age (four days before high school finished) I didn’t waste any time heading out to join the world of nightclubs and drinks.

In my first year out of school (2001) I was working a crappy job, and wasn’t continuing with my education. I made the choice to not apply for University, and I purposely didn’t study very hard for my Year 12 exams. I sat them all, and did okay with my English exam, but the rest were just a formality in my opinion, and my TAE (now called ATAR) score was so low, it ranked in the percentile where they don’t print on paper what score you got. You had to call up and find out, but I never bothered. I didn’t care. If I was going onto University one day, it would be because I wanted to, and when I wanted to. For my first year of adulthood and life outside of school, I had one agenda; work the days away and live for the night. 

“Go” was released in 1999, but I didn’t see it upon its initial release. I discovered it in early 2001, ranking it as one of those films I would get around to watching eventually. From what I’d heard people say who’d seen it, Go was described as something of a “Pulp Fiction” for teens, and when I watched it the first time, I came to agree with that analogy. Quentin Tarantino’s landmark film from 1994 reinvented the rules of storytelling in film, and established the interconnected three-story arc. He took a bunch of random characters, somehow all related by circumstance or chance, focused on one day over a single agenda or problem that united them all. Towards and around each other, these characters would either connect or clash, and it was a winning formula. Of course, the copycats were made in the years following Pulp Fiction, and Go feels like a cousin of PF, but is still its own film, in its own right.

After watching Go the first time, I didn’t watch it again for several months. If you haven’t seen it, the film is about a group of random characters, mostly young, who live in LA. The story revolves around a drug sale gone wrong, and the implications it causes for all concerned. There’s also a side story about a characters chaotic trip to Las Vegas which gets way out of control. You don’t have to think too much when you watch Go, and it’s not a film that sticks around in your memory once you’ve watched it. Rather, it’s a film you experience in the moment, much like the way its characters live; in the moment. The film goes for style over substance, wit instead of wisdom, and culture over character study. You’ll see teens work in supermarkets without a single concern for their customers, a rave full of pill-poppers and glow sticks, and a talking cat! Watching Go, is like hanging out with these characters as they set out for the night life, which begins once it gets dark, and ends with the morning light.

Towards the end of 2001, I had spent a year in the fish and seafood deli at my local shopping centre, working for peanuts and blowing it all on the weekend. Going out on a Friday night every week became ritual, and I liked to mix it up. It was either a drive in my mates car down Chapel Street, where I would jump out the window at the start of the drag, go into the Irish Pub for a couple of drinks, then leap back in the car as he drove past the pub again. As it took him two hours to go from one end of Chapel to the other, I had a good hour or so to wet my whistle while he got his fix behind the wheel. Then I would go out with the people I worked with. There was a guy my age who was a party animal, full of energy and the one who coaxed me out of my shell a little. Then there was another guy who worked at the fish shop – if you could call it working – who seemed to know everyone and who everyone knew in return. He had the same name as a famous person (although I won’t say who) and character to spare. Hanging out with him was like heading out for the night and disappearing into a haze of lights, smoke and booze. And the night was complete when I would stagger into bed around six am as the sun poked its head up, the taste of the 3am Maccas-run cheeseburger lingering in my mouth, and then sleep till noon before heading back to work. And I did this for the majority of my first year out of high school.

The nights when I couldn’t go out, either due to being broke, sick or I just couldn’t be bothered, I would watch Go. Because doing that was like going out, hanging out and relishing in the lives of some other youths who were clearly much more hedonistic and risky than I was. I guess you could say I lived through them a little bit. The film seemed to get better the more I watched it, as I came to know the three interconnecting stories inside and out, and would focus on a different character each time, trying to understand their motivations, what made them tick and what they got out of the night life. Working away the days until the weekend arrived was how I spent my first year out of school, and it felt great to have that freedom. But then, I got tired of it, and stopped watching Go as well. Accepting I had basically just bummed around for a year, blew enough money and was feeling the pinch from the parentals to get more focused or busy, I decided to scale back on the unhealthy habit of sleep all day – party all night. 

And even if the allure of the nightlife and the reckless freedom that was now infinitely at my disposal would get routine at times, I wasn’t missing high school. As I said at the start, the last day of that institution was the one of the best days of my life. So let’s go back there now, because it’s a funny story, and the film that accompanies that experience is also the final review of this series. So leave yourself some time, because the next review – and conclusion to the Movies of my Teens – is going to be a long one. But I think you’ll enjoy it… ;-) 

<<<Return to List