Go | Never Been Kissed | Twin Dragons

The triptych storyline, the jumped chronology, botched drug deals, Tantric sex, a Las Vegas car chase, and multi-level marketing. Sounds like the latest Tarantino flick, doesn't it?

Director Doug Liman's first feature since Swingers is an amalgam of dark comedy, quirky personalities, and heart-hammerin' joyrides. The dialogue is flashy and fun ("Zach, would you say you're into new things?"), if not uniquely original.

Story 1 follows store clerk Ronna Martin (Sarah Polley), who attempts a drug deal to pay her rent. The deal goes sour, though, but that doesn't keep her from peddling allegy medicine ("Really smooth.") to kids at a Christmas rave.

Story 2 takes Simon (Desmond Askew), another clerk at the same store, and a band of buddies to Las Vegas for a night of gambling, group sex, torched hotel rooms, and a stolen car.

Story 3 intersects three times with Story 1. Two soap opera stars (Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf) take part in a string operation run by detective Burke (William Fichtner). They're the ones who contact Ronna for the drugs, in order to wipe charges of possession off their own records.

The movie isn't as convoluted as it sounds, nor as confusing. Though dark in tone, as mentioned before, it's considerably lighter than, say, Pulp Fiction. Liman maintains a sure hand throughout and is helped by the strong leads and supporting performances from Timothy Olyphant as Todd Gaines, the drug dealer affected by all three stories, and Katie Holmes as Claire Montgomery, another store clerk caught up in the madness.

RATING: ***