Go Fish

Go Fish is a movie about Ely, a lesbian in a long-distance relationship. Ely is awkward and not overly attractive. She meets Max, who is neither of those things. Max and Ely’s burgeoning relationship makes up the main plot of Go Fish. The movie also features various subplots that show other aspects of the local, lesbian community.

Go Fish features excellent representation that doesn’t feel forced. Aside from the main characters all being lesbians, one of the leads is a black lesbian in academia. Perhaps more shocking than that is Ely. Ely is genuinely unattractive. Not like, movie unattractive which is to say a physical 9/10 as opposed to 10/10. No, Ely is genuinely average or homely. Statistically, most of us aren’t movie star hot. It can be a little disheartening that most love stories are populated by only the most beautiful of people. As such, it was thrilling to me to see not only a person who is not overly attractive onscreen but also that she is part of a love story.

My favourite aspect of Go Fish is the depiction of the lesbian community. There’s a handful of scenes throughout the movie where an ever-changing cast of lesbian friends discuss Max and Ely’s relationship. I found these to be the most charming scenes. The characters really do seem like friends and it’s sweet and funny when a new person shows up and falls effortlessly into the pre-established intimacy.

It’s also funny to see the incestuous closeness of circle of friends populated by queer women. All of them have a complex relationship of having dated, broken up with or mutually friend-zoning each other member. That’s some truth right there.

Go Fish has really captured some truth of lesbian culture that remains true today. The characters depicted in Go Fish feel like lesbians you’d meet in real life. That’s not something I can say about most WLW characters in film who are all too dramatic with lives too remarkable to seem like people I would ever encounter.

Where I find this movie falters is that it gets to academic. There’s a tendency for characters to be used as mouthpieces for the opinions of filmmakers. Characters discuss issues of gender and sexuality in a way that threw me back to taking first year gender studies courses in college. These scenes don’t evolve the plot and they don’t occur in a way that feels particularly natural.

Worst of these is a long scene of a lesbian admitting the a group of fellow lesbians that she slept with a man. The group lambasts her and her identity as a lesbian is more or less put on trial. Sexual politics having moved on significantly from the time this film was made to when I saw it, this scene was dated and made me sad. It’s also a prime example of what I was talking about above; an academic discussion of lesbianism that does not occur naturally and does not advance the plot.

As it is a low-budget directorial debut, some of the film making is a bit rough. The filmmakers haven’t quite gotten the hang of starting and ending scenes naturally so those transitions can be a bit awkward. Likewise, the acting can be rather stilted.

Ultimately though, I was charmed by Go Fish. It is a film that was the peak of trendy back in 1994 and is now becoming something of a period piece. It is interesting to see this very 90’s depiction of lesbian culture and fascinating to see the ways the culture has changed and the ways it has stayed the same.

Overall rating: 6.1/10

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