thumbworn
Possible minimal spoilers.I attempted to watch this based on the 7.5 score it received here on IMDb. I can only guess that the majority of the high ratings are from friends and family of the cast and crew, because this film was so bad I didn't make it through thirty minutes before I shut it off. The direction is terrible; I felt like I was watching the film project of a film student who decided on a whim to become a filmmaker and then failed the class, deservedly. The odd overlays and cuts reek of amateur filmmaking. I didn't like anything about the film from the moment it started, aside from the odd clothing choice of Christina Ricci's character, who was in a dance class wearing what doesn't seem to me like clothing someone would be wearing in dance class, especially someone as busty as Christina. The film should've been over as soon as it started, because she had multiple chances when they first got into the car to just lock Gallo's character out and drive off. The car was already running and he got out of the car twice (I believe, maybe 3 times)before her in the parking lot. It's not like he even had a gun or gave her reason to believe he did. She simply could've locked the door, slid over and drove away. The worst he could've done was punch the car's glass. Then he gets out and goes across the street to void his bladder and she just sits and waits. I could understand if her character was mentally challenged, but what person of average intelligence wouldn't have driven off? Personally, I'd have run him down first. A ten year old child would have the sense to lock the doors and drive away, yet somehow Ricci's character didn't. There wasn't even anything likable about the characters. Gallow's character is so unlikable and unintelligent that I struggled to wait as long as I did to shut the film off. His parents have the personalities of stones. I realize that this is a black comedy, but the few areas I detected as being intended as funny simply were not. What little dialogue there is in the portion I sat through is terrible. I'm angry that I wasted a rental on this. This is only my opinion.
Private-Witt
There really isn't another film like Vincent Gallo's darkly comic and moving masterwork 'Buffalo '66'. Simply put, it is one of the most stylistically unconventional, aesthetically accomplished and distinctively singular entries in all of American cinema. Set in the bleak, harsh winter of post-industrial Buffalo, Gallo's debut is a deceptively radical and modern love story. The film tells the story of Billy Brown, a lonely and depressed ex-convict, who had a fragmented childhood that he has clearly never recovered from. His upbringing was plagued by inattention and absence, and the consequences of this are very real; he is devoid of love, happiness and purpose. The film opens with Billy being released from prison and there is only one thing he is set out to do: gain the approval and acceptance of his parents, something he has always so ardently yearned for. To do this, he kidnaps Layla, a wandering, frivolous tap-dancer, and forces her to act as his wife for one evening as Billy visits his parents.This is a fairly repugnant premise for a proclaimed romantic film. By all means, Billy is a hateful, spiteful character. He is resentful, vindictive and unpleasant. Yet, despite all of this, Layla sees something in him. Beyond all the ostensible hostility and anger is a sad, lonely man who has never experienced anything remotely close to real companionship before. So, as Layla begins to slowly uncover the true sorrows of Billy Brown, we do, too, and what ultimately unfolds is a unique, poignant love story that is more honest and endearing than most films could ever dream of reaching.The film is about letting go of one's disconsolate and dejecting past and embracing the happiness they have found. I have pretty much described the thematic foundation of the film in that one sentence. To elucidate, Billy Brown is a man living in the past and not in the present. He is determined to murder Scott Wood, an American football player who missed an important field goal which inadvertently landed him in jail after a bet went sour. Throughout the film, he is holding on only to the feelings he is familiar with; hate, revenge, depression and loneliness. This is all he knows. These are the only feelings he is intimate with. He is highly avoidant of Layla and constantly refuses to be touched or kisses. He is a damaged soul, incapable of forming any kind of intimate human connection. But something changes. Billy breaks down, opens up, and falls in love. To explain why this happens would simply be an injustice to the film. Allow me to instead describe one scene in the film that symbolically epitomises everything Gallo's masterwork is trying to say. Just before Billy leaves the hotel to confront and murder Scott Wood, Layla asks for a hug. Billy, initially, is hesitant but Layla insists. So, they hug. And it is the hug that says it all. Billy hugs Layla but does so in a way that denotes his inner detachment and depression. He is holding onto Layla's hair quite firmly in this almost dominant disposition, signifying a perpetual sadness and isolation of sorts. But then he let's go of her hair, vulnerably falls into her arms and embraces her intimately. It is simply one of the most beautiful, touching and moving scenes I have ever seen.A simple intimate gesture like a hug says something most films would feel the need to explain. Embracing the hug is embracing the love, as corny as that may sound. Billy deciding not to to kill Scott Wood and return back to Layla at the hotel shows that Billy will no longer feel like a victim. He will no longer let his depression and sorrow plague his very existence. He has finally found what he has always so heavily desired; love, companionship, purpose and happiness. And, really, that's absolutely beautiful. The film has, unsurprisingly, been criticised for being misogynistic on a few occasions. These arguments state that Layla is an object who is all too conveniently subservient to Billy considering she was... well, kidnapped. The fact that Layla falls in love with Billy infuriated many viewers, too, so they expectably dismiss it as a hateful film that portrays women as subordinate and clueless. These reviews see the film as a twisted, dark fantasy for Gallo, but they don't really seem to understand that Layla is anything but these things. Quite the contrary, actually. She is someone who sees through Gallo's resentful disposition and discovers what many in the film can not: a damaged man. Enough with that, though. Obviously, the film has a remarkable visual style. The static camera-work, reminiscent of filmmaker Yasjuro Ozu, in addition to its seamlessly transitional editing and fluid long takes are nothing short of impressive. The film captures the dreary and bleak post-industrial atmosphere of Buffalo astonishingly well, too, almost making the city, itself, a character of sorts. Indeed, Buffalo plays out like this omnipresent entity of constant gloom and darkness that overshadows Billy's life. And one can simply not forget the film's extensive use of progressive rock, either. Whether it is Layla tap-dancing to King Crimson's seminal Moonchild or Billy confronting Scott Wood to Yes' Heart of the Sunrise, the film uses prog rock in ways very few other works can. And while we're on the subject of music, is there a more apposite way to end the film with Yes' Sweetness playing into the end credits? I don't think so.Overall, Buffalo '66 is a masterpiece of filmmaking. It is my favourite film of all time, and a work that is very special and important to me. Vincent Gallo's craftsmanship is simply impeccable, and it's a feature that will be looked back at in the decades to come as a truly unique, highly original film from a misunderstood genius.
birck
I saw the original preview for this film in 1998 and never forgot the strange main character. I finally figured out what film I was looking for and watched it on Amazon. Thanks to Gallo, a great cast, and a good script, it really is a good film. A character study of a marginal personality-a guy who is barely able to hold it together, who meets a young woman who sees through his off-putting facade and really wants to get to know him, in spite of his twisted family history and repulsive mannerisms. The fact that Vincent Gallo was able to corral the excellent cast he did to fill out the story must be a tribute to the quality of his script. There are no clichés in it. It is one of a kind. It's ironic that a script of this quality can attract good actors, but not the money to make a more polished film. On the other hand, the basic, workmanlike production suits the story and the locale-down-and-out Buffalo, populated with characters that work perfectly in this story.
cbockiii
Almost every sentence that comes out of Vincent Gallo's mouth makes me laugh. He says terrible things in his movies and in interviews, but he's one of the most interesting people in show business.Every actor in this movie did a super job. Gallo, Christina Ricci, Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazarra, Anjelica Huston, Goon... the list goes on. How much of it was because of Gallo's direction, I don't know, but I loved every minute of it.You can imagine the hilarity in an innocent, kind woman falling for a guy who is a miserable jerk. She never gives up, and the audience reaps the rewards of that. He's a jerk to his family, he's a jerk to his friends and he's a jerk to her. And all of it is hilarious.
