The Go-Getter Movie Review

The Go-Getter is a cookie-cutter coming-of-age film that questions the core of innocence, interpersonal relationships, coping with grief, and the harsh contrast between imagination and reality.

Nineteen year old Mercer is a good young man at heart. However, after his Mother dies he spirals into a tirade of grief-stricken rebellion. One day he steals a Volvo station wagon from a car wash and sets out on a wild goose chase to track down Arlen, his older half-brother whom he hasn't seen in years. Along the way he encounters Arlen's past acquaintances in Oregon, Nevada, California, and Ultimately Mexico.

As Mercer winds his way across the Western United States he is greeted by frequent calls on the cell phone left in the car. The voice on the other end is the curious, young female owner of the car who lets him continue his trip without contacting the police as long as he explains his reasoning and keeps her updated on his continuing progress. Through the course of Mercer's trip this running dialogue becomes a device for both of the teens to discover themselves and each other as they come to terms with the new-found challenges of adult life.

Despite being rife with coming to age cliché's The Go-Getter manages to captivate and entertain. The screenplay was believable and well written; maintaining a fast-pace and spanning a wide variety of locations. The characters were deep and enthralling, despite some sub-par acting on the part of the protagonist. The dialogue exudes an almost ad-libbed tone which drives the dimensional characters and captures the intricate nature of adolescence. Unfortunately the Second Act couldn't hold momentum throughout and in turn the film feels a little too long.

The cinematography was highly motivated and contributes a great deal of energy to each scene while creating a gritty, washed-out look that stresses the impending challenges of Mercer's journey. A stylistic and clever mix of continuity and complexity editing maintains interest and keeps the film's flow. One of the most interesting sequences in the film is a post-modern homage to the "Madison" dance scene in Godard's Band of Outsiders. However, there were a few scenes that the color temperature and exposure didn't match between cuts, which took away from the aesthetics and gave the film an amateur feel and could have been easily corrected in Post-Production. Overall The Go-Getter is a coming-of-age film with charisma and heart; which reminisces upon teenage innocence, the long-lost emotions of budding first-loves, and the hardships of young adult life which tear down the walls of perception and reality with the transition into the real world.