Director/cinematographer Doug Liman (1996’s critical fave Swingers) melds together a wild ride in the lives of a dozen or so young Angelinos and their travails in the world of drugs, raves, stolen cars, and strippers. Liman’s third cinematic effort (his first was 1994’s Getting In a.k.a. Student Bodies) is a hyperkinetic melding of cuts, mismatched timelines, and furious pacing. Invariably, Go is compared to Quentin Tarantino’s style, particularly in Pulp Fiction. Practically everything I’ve read about the film has a mention of Pulp in there — so, I suppose I have to mention it, too. While there are similarities in their off-kilter storyline interchanging, let’s not forget that Tarantino is not the grandfather of this style either (but merely a recent resurrector of it.)

Writer John August injects a fresh take in the teen film genre (though I hate to think of this as a “teen” movie just because of its young cast). The cast includes the up-and-coming Sarah Polley (wonderful in The Sweet Hereafter), Taye Diggs (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek), Scott Wolf (Party of Five), Jay Mohr (Saturday Night Live, Mafia), and William Fichtner (Contact), among other good actors.

The general premise involves (and I’ll keep names out of it) a novice drug buyer trying to score some ecstasy for a couple of soap stars while the regular drug buyer is in Las Vegas. While the drug deal is not picture-perfect, neither is the trip to Vegas — a trip that should have simply been a drinking and gambling weekend. Meanwhile, our two soap stars get involved (unwittingly) with a guy who seems to have an ulterior motive to most everything he is does. (You’ll love what he’s involved in.)

The film is contrived to play with time and chronology — a trick that when used well, can yield a lot of fun. That’s what this film is, a fast and fun ride. And even though I’d like to, I won’t make a cheesy pun like “Go and see this film now!” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Ed’s brother Ray (a very funny Woody Harrelson) wanted to be the chosen personality, but is content with the fact that he can plug his gym on TV. Rounding out the ensemble are Sally Kirkland and Martin Landau as Ed’s mother and step-father. Ellen DeGeneres is well-cast as the program executive who is initially happy about her idea for this show, and the great Rob Reiner plays the president of the television station who resorts to nefarious tactics to keep his show entertaining — and profitable.

While the general message in the film is not a new concept — our culture is obsessed with celebrity and iconic creatures whether they deserve fame or not — it is still amusing to see new ways of handling the subject. Ed, at first nonplussed about being on TV, eventually realizes that he has opened a Pandora’s box by deciding to appear in one.

Howard knows how to work with actors (after all, he was Opie!), and the relationships in the film seem genuine and sometimes bittersweet. Helping Howard are the writers. Long-time collaborators Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who have scripted such films as: City Slickers I & II, Parenthood, Father’s Day, Multiplicity, and A League of Their Own, know each other’s rhythms and pacing and are able to come up with more of a three dimensional character base than we often get to see in ensemble pieces like this.

At least Ed decided to be a media magnet. Too often, what passes for news is simply our fascination, as a voyeuristic society, with people who don’t always seek the media spotlight. The perverse thing is that many of us still watch, no matter how intrusive we might feel.

We are a country that is raptly curious about what others are doing. People spend hours watching others they don’t know, sitting in front of their computers, focused on some web-cam somewhere. Go figure. By the way, you can see me on-line at www.arikswebca … just kidding. I’m too busy spending hours watching people on a small screen in my living room, except it’s movies about the people watching the other people and not the actual people that I’m watching. What?