A 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
March 5, 2010
#1
I bought this for my 5-year old daughter because she wanted to learn how to play the card game “Go Fish” and I could not remember the rules. This is not a DVD about card games! Luckily, I was able to pull the DVD out of the machine before my little Jessica got too much of an eye-full. My husband Randy and I watched it later hoping to spice up our love-life. But the woman are pretty bad looking and one does not even shave her legs. We re-gifted the DVD to our in-laws, there was nothing for us. The quality of the DVD was quite good, though, and the Chapter selections and all were nice.
March 5, 2010
#2
This film is just plain UGLY, in more ways than one! I rented this movie and I couldn’t finish it~I made it about 1/2 through. This movie sounded good when I read the description; two women, one attractive and outgoing, the other shy and plain, find romance. Well the movie began and it was in a very unappealing black-and-white. So off the bat I was turned off. I have watched and liked other B&W stuff before~but for some reason I just couldn’t stomach it this time~probably because it just looked so ugly in this movie. Well then I started to look for the main character, you know the attractive and outgoing one (and aren’t the pretty ones always outgoing???)? Then I realize it’s MAX! Yikes! I don’t know about the outgoing part, but this woman looks like she hadn’t hit puberty yet! She’s wearing baggy pants, a baggy top, and a baseball cap~she looked like a young, immature boy! Attractive?! Not! But get this, Max was absolutely STUNNING to me once I laid eyes upon her would-be suitor I-forget-her-name!!! And that was in the beginning BEFORE she chopped off most of her hair into a mohawk cut! After that, this movie became TOTALLY unwatchable! That chick was one of the ugliest people I have ever seen. To just have her in a movie is one thing-but to pair her up? I had to hit “EJECT” on this one! That’s one sex scene I DID NOT want to see! Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand it that in most movies the actors are all so beautiful and perfect, but this movie is at the other extreme. Lesbians on the whole are not like the ones in this movie-pre-puberty looking and boyish, or extremely ugly. Those are the choices for the white characters anyway. But lesbians are also not like the ones on the L Word-stunningly beautiful. Lebians are simply regular women. Some are very pretty, others are plain. Just like all women. Why can’t lesbian women be portrayed this way? I have not seen the L Word, but from the looks of it, I think men may enjoy it the most! Um, where’s all the great stuff that caters to real-life lesbian women???
March 5, 2010
#3
the thing about this movie is that it is bad. The only plot is that there are two women, and woohoo! They end up together! I bet you couldn’t have guessed that! What the hell else are they going to do – they’re lesbians! That is what we want to see! But the fact that there are no subplots, no… anything else to keep anyone watching is just pathetic. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean we have to hold on to it. Anyone could just as easily make a movie in black and white, have two women cut each other’s nails, and it would probably be better because maybe it would waste less of my time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that many people do like this movie. I don’t know why. All I am saying is, if you want to watch it, rent it first. Actually, just rent something else. Go watch the L-word. That is much better.
March 5, 2010
#4
My and girlfriend watched this movie and we hated it. It was senseless and we had to stop it when it was around 35 min. I couldn’t watch it no more. It was horrible. My girlfriend gave it to her best friend and she said it was the worst lesbian movie she had ever seen… I agree!
March 5, 2010
#5
Let me start by saying; Two weeks ago, I made a decision to learn as much as possible about lesbian lifestyle as possible through movies. To date I have purchase about 7 films, All pretty good, but this one scared me to be honest. I just did not get it. What this movie did for me is completely understand why professionals make movies instead of people that just might know something about the subject. Ugly; extremely! I don’t think you could have depicted girls in any dimmer light. Scary!