Description: 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.
Amazon.com: 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
An excellent document of it's time Ok, 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....
Unwatachable As a lesbian film, a straight film or just a film in general this is just unwatchable. I just dont get the fact this film won awards.
Absolutely wonderful Words can not even begin to express how much I loved this movie. I don't usually like the whole arty/black-and-white thing, but something about it just drew me in from the beginning, and I am VERY glad I took the time to watch it.
It's the first lesbian movie I've seen that I felt really connected... kinda hard to explain what I mean, but if you are a lesbian and you feel out of place in the world, BUY THIS MOVIE. It will take away that awful feeling that you're too weird and there's nobody else like you... this movie has women who look like real women and act like real women -- this is about as far from "The L Word" as it's possible to get, and that's a good thing.
Playing hard to get Lesbian love story set in Chicago. The two main characters that everyone in lesbian community is trying to hook up are polar opposites. One is young and pretty, while the other one is older and homely looking. Both are looking for the right love interest in their lives and are not rushing in their pursuit of finding one. While acting is somewhat substandard, we do get close to this story as everyone, regardless of the gender can relate to sincere efforts of finding a true love. In addition to intimate view of lesbian life and community, film also raises other questions such as commitment between two people, diversion of lesbian woman in sexual relationship with a man and what it means to other lesbian's perception of her.
Without Go Fish there'd be no L Word Crtiticze all you want, but without Go Fish breaking the ground that it did, we'd have no L Word. While the production values are low, hollywood was not shelling out millions of dollars tomade for, by and about lesbian films. This film is historical and paved the way for lesbian representation. Hate ot or Love it...we are here because of it.
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