Going In: Sharp New Crime Dramedy Plays Like an 1980s Classic Unearthed

By Chris Knight

Rating: A

People say they don’t make them like they used to, but that’s only partly true. They just don’t make as many as they used to, and they’re often not as good.

But Going In, a long-gestating first feature from writer-director-star Evan Rissi, is proof that it’s possible.

It isn’t just set in 1989 Toronto. It looks like it was filmed there, released then, and only now is being rediscovered. It exists at the sweet nexus of looking back fondly and living in the moment, like some kind of Zen Venn diagram.

Rissi stars as Leslie Boothe, a milquetoast university professor whose wild, dark past is personified by his old friend Reuben Goldstein (Ira Goldman), who shows up at his work one day to call in a favour. Seems Reuben’s little brother has disappeared while working for Feng, the city’s chief drug dealer. Reuben needs Leslie’s help to get the kid back.

The road they must take is delightfully long and winding. Feng (Victor D.S. Man) is pushing Pearl, a new drug that gives users an out-of-body experience, sometimes permanently. But he also runs a biannual tournament with an ever-changing format and a $30,000 cash prize. So, Leslie and Reuben must score tickets to the event and then win the contest in order to get close to their prey.

But how to get in? Well, it’s 1989, so why not find a guy who has a pair of tickets and challenge him to a basketball game, with Reuben’s silver Porsche as collateral? Or perhaps they should enter an impromptu dance-off at a club? Or engage in a battle with two motorcycle-riding ninjas in a dark alley?

Variations on all these and more fill out the fun ride that is Going In, and while there’s homage and the odd reference to the old days — who else remembers “You got it, Pontiac?” — there’s never any winking. Even when it’s funny (and it often is), Going In is seriously funny, and it wants us to take it in that same spirit.

Fortunately, Rissi’s screenplay and direction make that easy. There are moments in this film that — how does one put this? — if you’d seen them in a film in 1989, they’d have entered your lexicon, like a line from Black Rain or The Karate Kid or any of a million other pop culture references of that era. But they’re brand new. It’s disconcerting in the most delightful way, like discovering that Neapolitan ice cream actually had four flavours all along.

Without giving too much away, Going In’s final act features a contest that feels like a lost episode of Squid Game (but to be clear this film has been in the works since 2016, long before Squid stirred) and a bizarre trip into a kind of Matrix.

My only complaint about Going In is that it hasn’t had more of a big-screen release, save for one glorious night at Toronto’s Paradise Theatre, truly living up to its name. But it is now available digitally on demand, and I’d urge you to seek it out as you would any other classic of those times.

No matter how steeped you are in action movies circa 1990 — Dick Tracy, Darkman, Die Hard — I can guarantee you haven’t seen this one yet.

Going In. Directed by Evan Rissi. Starring Evan Rissi, Ira Goldman, and Victor D.S. Man. Available now on demand.