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Go Fish by Rose Troche
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Anastasia Sharp, Guinevere Turner, Jamika Ajalon, T. Wendy McMillan, V.S. Brodie Director: Rose Troche DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled) Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 88 minutes DVD Release Date: 2001-07-24 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Go FishMovie Review: An excellent document of it's time Summary: 4 StarsOk, I know that GO FISH has some bad acting. I know that the lines are sometimes self conscious and try too hard. And I understand that some people find the actors to be unattractive. But here's the thing: any movie made by dykes, for dykes, is a valuable part of our community, even ones that make us want to cry (in the bad way). So it doesn't represent you and your friends. Ok, well, maybe you haven't noticed that dykes are an extremely varied group of people, so shut up and make your own movie about your friends. And then everyone can complain about how it isn't just like them.
Maybe I'm biased because GO FISH was the first lesbian made movie I ever saw in a movie theater. Maybe I'm biased because the fashion in the film, horrible as it is, is EXACTLY the kind of clothing that my friends and I wore in the 90's. But I kind of like this movie. LIke it or not, a lot of dykes are really mostly interested in sex and dating and finding someone to love. Is that so bad? In my experience, straight people aren't all that different. And film in the 90's was really into that "let's just show people how they really are" thing- remember Reality Bites? No one gets all mad if straight people in straight movies talk and think about sex all of the time- why should dykes be any different?
Some of the things I really admire about this movie: it deals honestly with the "when are you a dyke, when are you bisexual" question, it has more than one dyke character of color, it has a family situation where the parents aren't ok with their dyke daughter (that's called reality, not like Better than Chocolate), the women are all normal bodied, with stomach rolls and hairy legs, just like the women I know, it actually talks about safe sex (unheard of in dyke film- did you catch it, when Daria gives Ely a ziploc bag before her date? uh huh), and, for that matter, the slutty character is the one who practices safe sex, a really valuable message for dykes.
So this movie will always remain one of my favorites. To me, it absolutely marks a time and place in dyke history. And as much as I hate to say it, apparently the 90's are now a part of dyke history....
Summary of Go FishA film-festival favorite, this "groundbreaking picture" (The Hollywood Reporter) is a candidand honest look at women in love that is "visually audacious, full of surprising charm and highly entertaining" (Variety)! In her directorial debut, Rose Troche (Bedrooms & Hallways), along with her co-writer and lead actress Guinevere Turner, delivers a lively, warm-hearted romantic comedy about the quest for Ms. Right that is "original, witty and delightful" (Los AngelesTimes)! Feisty, beautiful Max (Turner) is an outgoing young woman looking for romance. Tired of hearing her whine about the missing "X" factor in her life, Max's roommate sets her up with bashful, olderbut homelyEly (V. S. Brodie). Needless to say, there's no sign of fireworks! But just as Max begins to think that she is destined to be alone forever, she discovers that some oflife's best surprises come in plain, brown paper packages. Go Fish won acclaim in its initial release in 1994, probably because of its irreverence in gazing at the lives of a group of young lesbians in Chicago. The film was directed and cowritten by Rose Troche, who went on to make Bedrooms and Hallways with the help of Guinevere Turner, her then-partner and star of this film. (Turner later appeared in several films and collaborated with director Mary Harron to bring the nearly unadaptable Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho to the big screen.) Go Fish is an audience film in that it needs a crowd to make its in-joke mentality pulse. In fact, it's hard to believe the film transcended its target demographic despite the fact that in its heart of hearts it's an old-fashioned love story. It feels amateurish upon solo home viewing, though retaining an iota of charm for its low-budget clunkiness and funkiness. While it basically tells the story of a young lesbian (played by Turner) looking for Ms. Right, and conforms to a standard scenario in that love is always found where it's least expected, it benefits mostly from Troche's ability to wring some wit out of "dyke drama" and, with her insider's point of view, poke gentle fun at it with a relatively sharp stick. --Paula Nechak
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