"Go Fish"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                         WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL
                               July 9, 1994

   Well, finally! A lesbian narrative fiction feature film that is fun, gives
a realistic portrayal of urban lesbian dykes--or at least (baby)dykes--and is
competent and interesting filmmaking. I dunno about you, but this is what I've
been waiting for. The film is GO FISH, the work of Chicago director Rose
Troche, with screenplay written by Troche and her lead actor Guinevere Turner.

    I, and the rest of the opening night audience at the Tampa Theater last
night, absolutely had a ball with this extremely witty and good natured film
about Max (Guinevere Turner), a 24 year-old Chicago dyke and aspiring writer
who's single and is looking for, longing for the "right" woman to come her
way.

  She asks her college professor roommate Kia (T. Wendy McMillan)to fix her up
with someone, which Kia, her lover Evy (Migdalia Melendez), and friend Daria
(Anastasia Sharp) all conspire to do. The person they pick seems an unlikely
choice, it's Daria's roommate Ely (V.S. Brodie). It's not love at first sight;
in fact Max 's reaction to her first glimpse of Ely is "U-G-L-Y, She ain't got
no alibi!" Not a promising start. Max's friends (who gather, heads arranged on
the screen like a kaleidoscopic Greek chorus, periodically to discuss the
goings on) persist and trick Max and Ely into a first date which itself is
pretty much a disaster, with Max continuing to be judgmental about Ely's
looks and taste in nearly everything.  Then Ely's partner, with whom she's
still officially connected calls from Seattle where she has been living for two
years, just at the point when Max is beginning to get interested and
the moment passes. Don't get me wrong this is no erotic teaser of a film.
There are lots of sex scenes that owe a debt cinematically to Barbara
Hammer's early work; it's just Max and Ely who are having trouble getting
together.

   There are  subplots that lesbians will recognize and relate to. (When
Evy's Latina mother finds out Evy's been seen in lesbian bars and throws her
out of the house telling her she's going to hell, someone in the audience
yelled, "That's my life!") An effective moment was when sexually very active
Daria is walking home from having sex with a man, she has a whole not-so-
paranoid fantasy of the inquisitional grilling she'd get from her dyke friends
if they knew. The dialogue in this scene ran the gamut of things lesbians
might really say about someone who identifies as a dyke but sleeps with a man
(and her response was also right on target). These subplots are perhaps the
most serious segments in the film, but mostly it's a light hearted romp filled
with gentle, affectionate jibes at the foibles of lesbian life. The big second
date fingernail cutting scene had the audience laughing delightedly, as did
the haircut scene--edited into a wackily non-linear montage.

   I've heard a couple of complaints about this film from friends who saw it
before I did. One was that the sound track is bad and hard to understand.
That's true, of course, of almost all low budget independent films and of this
one, too. My advice is that if you see it at the Tampa Theater this week sit
down front where the acoustics are better, not under the balcony overhang. The
other complaint I heard was about the acting, but here I didn't concur. Many
of the actors here were not professionals (Anastasia Sharp, who does a good
job of playing Daria was a waitress, Migdalia Melendez was "discovered" in a
lesbian bar and so on) but I think Rose Troche did a superb job of getting
relaxed easy and spontaneous performances out of the entire cast. And
compared to the performances in the last lesbian feature film to make the
rounds--the dreadful "Claire of the Moon"--these folks deserve Oscars. The
film itself was already enthusiastically received at this year's Sundance Film
Festival and the Samuel Goldwyn Company is to be commended for picking  it up
and giving it some pretty decent publicity and distribution.

   If you're a lesbian, you're pretty certain to like this film a lot. If
you're straight but not narrow, you probably will too.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.
   Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not
reprint this review without the permission of the author.