Go for Sisters
Film
Review by Kam Williams
Frantic
Mom Enlists Help in Search for Son in South of the Border Whodunit
Bernice
Stokes (LisaGay Hamilton) is a parole officer in Los Angeles where her job routinely places
her in close proximity with the dregs of society. She normally has no reason to
associate with such miscreants after hours, being very straitlaced and coming
from a solid, middle class background.
However,
everything changes the day the single-mom’s only child (McKinley Belcher, III)
suddenly vanishes without a trace. Rodney, an Iraq War veteran hadn’t been the
same since serving overseas.
Bernice was
aware that he’d been hanging out with some unsavory characters recently,
including a suspected drug dealer who was just murdered. Desperate to find her
son, she strikes an unspoken bargain with Fontayne Scott (Yolonda Ross), a new
client who has just flunked a urine test.
Rather than
report Fontayne to her superior, Bernice enlists the streetwise addict’s
assistance in the search. Complicating matters a bit is the fact that the two
had been close friends back in high school. So, while unearthing clues pointing
to Tijuana, the
former BFFs are afforded an opportunity to deconstruct the events leading to
their falling out over a boy they both wanted.
Besides
Fontayne’s help, Bernice also retains the services of Freddy Suarez (Edward
James Olmos), a disgraced, LAPD detective whose investigative experience and fluent
Spanish are likely to come in handy south of the border. Packing a guitar and
singing in the car, the unlikely trio heads for Mexico, posing as a musical group
in order to not arouse suspicion.
Written and
directed by two-time, academy Award-nominee John Sayles (for Passion Fish and
Lone Star), Go for Sisters is a deliberately-paced crime drama which benefits
as much from absorbing character development as from the intrigue surrounding
solving the underlying whodunit. Credit charismatic Edward James Olmos for
keeping the movie compelling, although Yolonda Ross and LisaGay Hamilton manage
to fold their own opposite the Oscar-nominated
thespian (for Stand and
Deliver).
A dangerous
border town as no country for old men or middle-aged sisters either.
Excellent
(4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 122
minutes
Distributor: Variance
Films
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