A sweet, simple portrait of lesbian lives
How does a slug turn into a caterpillar? Of course in scientific reality it doesn’t but that’s the best way to describe Go Fish in one sentence. It’s a glimpse into lesbian life rarely shown in film (written and directed by lesbians) that starts out dragging you along in sludge so that you are stuck watching it but almost fighting to escape, and ends with finding yourself surprisingly uttering “how cute!”
Interesting, though the film received plenty of press and recognition due to the nature of the characters and subject matter, barely anyone of the key actresses has worked in front of the camera since. Guinevere Turner (Max) is currently involved in some projects and has had a share of bit roles since Go Fish. V.S. Brodie was a production assistant on Todd Haynes’s Safe and a unit manager on some back alley film called Dead Funny. Co-writer and director Rose Troche has gone on to direct a small movie in 1998 and is currently writing and directing another project. The rest of the players are listed with this particular film solely to their credit, both before and after.
It could be argued that the lack of exposure is due to a lack of talent, and in some cases I might concur but it is difficult to discern with the material they had to work with. Most of the dialogue, which is refreshingly average conversation that any individuals would have together, doesn’t give the characters much to do. Hearing normal sentences dive back and forth between two or more characters allows an audience to easily enter the world of a film, but after a while the overall effect is bland. Luckily the characters and the situations they face aren’t.
The Characters
So there’s Max (Turner) who shares an apartment with her ex-professor Kia, (T. Wendy Macmillan) who is in a relationship with Evy (Migdalia Melendez). Max is a bit of a tomboy but out on the prowl for a girlfriend. At first she talks like men are supposed to stereotypically talk in a high school locker room as she banters with Kia on her taste in women. However, we get a taste of just how inwardly romantic Max is through voiceover that is inspired by her writing in her journal. The voiceover is strong enough poetically to both endear you to Max and to relate to her in that there is plenty we all feel that we don’t say out loud.
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