The Rectangular View

The Story:

Go Fish is a low budget lesbian romance from 1994. Although it’s a simple story of a lesbian looking for love, it tries to address the broader aspects of lesbian life. It’s filmed in black and white and often comes across as an overly stylized artsy film noir.

Go Fish is about Max (Guinevere Turner), a twenty-something lesbian who is roommates with Kia (T. Wendy McMillan), a college professor. When Kia and Max meet up at a coffee shop, they run into Ely (V.S. Brodie), a woman with long hair who Max says she would never date because she looks like a hippy. But Kia wants to see Ely and Max together and goes about finding ways to get them alone.

Kia’s girlfriend Evy (Migdalia Melendez), their hypersexual friend Daria (Anastasia Sharp), and the woman Daria is seeing at any given point make up a lesbian Greek chorus, commenting on the interactions between Max and Ely. While this may have seemed cool and hip in 1994, it feels a bit pretentious today. It also doesn’t help that the acting throughout is horrendous.

There’s a scene where a gang of angry lesbians call Daria’s lesbian identity into question because she had casual sex with a man. The scene uses light and shadow to give it a surreal effect and sense of claustrophobia. It’s well done for the most part, but the lack of professional actors takes away the artistry. It also doesn’t help that the storyline gets dropped, making me wonder why it was even in the film.

Another story that comes into play is Evy being kicked out of her home when her mother discovers she’s a lesbian. The scene is not only poorly acted, but it feels awkward and forced. And while I enjoyed some of the dialogue when Max tries to console Evy by attempting to share her outrage, the actors aren’t skilled enough to deliver the dialogue realistically.

Very often Go Fish feels like it doesn’t know if it wants to be a lesbian romance or an artsy take on lesbian life and ends up not being enough of either. While Go Fish has historical importance, I can’t recommend it to anyone looking for a good lesbian romance.

Final thoughts:

While Go Fish proves that director Rose Troche knows how to make a good looking piece of cinema, the overall product suffers from a bad script, written by Guinevere Turner, and acting that is below sub-par.