One of the most oddball actors of the indie-film scene, Vincent Gallo has made a mark with his dark, greasy hairstyle and steely look with such films that include Rebecca Miller’s “Angela”, Abel Ferrera’s “The Funeral”, “Palookaville”, “Arizona Dream” with Johnny Depp and Keifer Sutherland’s “Truth or Consequences, N.M.”. In 1998 with a $1.5 million budget, Gallo released his directorial debut film based on his own life about a newly released convict kidnapping a young woman in to pleasing his parents while he is ready to kill the man that sent him to jail for five years. The resulting film “Buffalo '66" is an enchanting drama directed by Gallo, which he co-wrote with Allison Bagnall, based on his own story. Starring Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Anjelica Huston, Kevin Corrigan, Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, and Jan-Michael Vincent, “Buffalo '66" is a stark, eerie drama of a man facing an uncertain destiny.

After five years in prison, Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is finally released but while waiting for his bus, he desperately needs to go to the bathroom. After arriving on the bus stop in his hometown of Buffalo, New York and trying to find a bathroom in service, he finds one in a dance studio where a tap dancing class is in session. He enters the bathroom but a big guy is next to him and Billy couldn’t take a leak where he leaves, cursing and being angry. A young woman (Christina Ricci) tells him to watch to watch his mouth in which he gets angry but then asks for a quarter so he could call his mom Jan (Anjelica Huston). He calls her telling that he and his girlfriend are coming to dinner. The young woman comes out of the bathroom in which, Billy kidnaps her and then tells her that he needs her to be his girlfriend for a while.

The woman named Layla goes along where she would be called Wendy Balsam. She and Billy arrive at the home of Billy’s house where she meets his Buffalo Bills-obsessed mother and his tough-talking father Jimmy (Ben Gazzara). Jan asks if Billy wanted ginger ale but he said no because it upsets his stomach and just wanted water. She brings him water and chocolate donuts but Billy couldn’t eat chocolate where he reminded Jan that he’s allergic to chocolate. Layla notices the distance between Billy and his dad where she talks about how she met Billy in a building where he worked for the CIA. Jimmy is intrigued by Layla’s sweetness where he sings to her in his room, since he used to be a lounge singer. The dinner comes off in a dysfunctional way, particularly since Layla, a vegetarian, is forced to eat tripe. Layla notices the distance between Billy and his father further where Jimmy accuses Billy of pointing the dinner knife at him.

Later after Jan said she wished she didn’t have Billy because of a missed game, Billy calls his friend Goon (an uncredited Kevin Corrigan) about his release and his plan for the night. Billy reveals why he went to jail for five years because he confessed to a crime he didn’t commit in order to pay a gambling debt to a bookie (Mickey Rourke) for $10,000 on the Buffalo Bills to win. Billy would give Goon instructions to send mail to his mother during that time while Billy heard a rumor that the football kicker, that cost him his freedom, Scott Woods (Bob Wahl) blew the game unpurpose in which, Billy must now go find and kill him. Back at dinner, Layla begins to embellish more on Billy’s life where she tells his parents that she’s about to have a baby in which Jan tells him.

Billy wasn’t happy that Layla embellished everything but she insisted that his parents would be proud of him. With the night approaching, Layla decides to hang out with him a bit more by going to the bowling alley where he was once, king. Billy meets up with old pal and alley owner Sonny (Jan-Michael Vincent) who kept his ball and locker where Billy bowls while Layla does a tap dancing sequence and bowls a bit. They then go to Denny’s for coffee where they meet Wendy Balsam (Rosanna Arquette), who was supposedly Billy’s ex-girlfriend where she asks if she knew him. Billy is extremely uncomfortable where he and Layla stay at a hotel for the night and they later sleep with each other where Billy calls Goon for the last time about what he is about to do and wonders what will happen after he meets Scott Woods.

While Gallo acknowledges the influence of the French New Wave and John Cassavettes in “Buffalo '66" for it’s harrowing family drama and stylized jump cut edits, Gallo does bring an original vision for this film. Notably for its bleak, grainy look of the film that is captured beautifully by cinematographer Lance Acord, famous for his work with Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola’s 2003 landmark film “Lost in Translation”. Gallo, the director does bring in a lot of fine elements, notably with stylized square iris shots and flashback sequences while Ricci’s tap dance bowling scene and Gazzara’s lounge act are the best moments. The film’s story isn’t entirely original since in some cases, has a bit of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” in its realism but Gallo did make sure the characters are complex and interesting, even if they’re unlikeable. Gallo, being the jack-of-all-trades also does the film’s dreamy, stripped-down film score while the film has a diverse soundtrack of songs by Yes, King Crimson, and Stan Getz.

The film’s cast is clearly to fun to watch, even in their small roles. While Jan-Michael Vincent, Mickey Rourke, and Rosanna Arquette have small roles, they each deliver their roles in a masterful way, notably Rourke who is just one of those actors, even in a bad film, cannot suck. Kevin Corrigan is also enjoyable in the role of Billy Brown’s idiotic friend with his demand to be called Rocky instead of Goon that is often funny but sad since Billy tends to abuse him verbally. Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston really stand out in their roles of Billy’s dysfunctional parents where Gazzara had the more complex character of a man who is broken only to be alive when he is singing. Huston though is used more for hilarity, particularly since she is an avid fan of the Bills and we see her frustration when she takes her frustrations on Billy about a missed game of the Bills.

In the leading roles, Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci are both wonderful together even if its very dysfunctional at times since Gallo is more compulsive with Ricci being more sweet and charming yet they both work very well together. Gallo is excellent in his role of Billy by making the character frustratingly likeable despite his flaws and compulsiveness. Gallo also brings sympathy to his anguished character since he is filled with a lot of conflict concerning his destiny. Christina Ricci though, brings in the film’s best performance in the role of Layla not with just a sweet, innocent tone to the role but also an angelic quality that is eerie. Ricci even brought a Lolita-like quality to her character but in a more innocent format than the actual character of the book. In a year where she went from child-actress to cutting-edge thespian starting with Ang Lee’s 1997 melodrama “The Ice Storm” and in 1998, appearing in John Water’s “Pecker” and Don Roos’ “The Opposite of Sex”, it was clearly a great year for Christina Ricci.

While “Buffalo '66" isn’t a perfect film with an ending that might be a cop-out for some, it’s still an intriguing, enchanting film from Vincent Gallo with a spellbinding performance from Christina Ricci. While Ricci went on to appear in several films including last year’s “Monster” with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, Gallo’s career went on stranger route. Notably with his sophomore feature “The Brown Bunny” that drew negative reviews at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, notably for an oral sex scene between him and Chloe Sevigny. Whatever result of that film is, “Buffalo '66" did prove that Vincent Gallo is one of the strangest but cleverest of actors/filmmakers in the indie film scene.

The Brown Bunny (2003):

http://www.epinions.com/content_155701186180



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age