Buffalo '66

Male model turned actor and artist, Vincent Gallo’s directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. Throwing out the standard repetitions of shot/reverse shot, Gallo brings an individual film grammar to the screen, a beguiling mix of formal tropes and apparently impetuous conceits.

If not autobiographical, then at least very personal, the film follows one Billy Brown (Gallo) out of prison and back to his hometown, Buffalo, NY. There he kidnaps a girl, Layla (Christina Ricci) a busty, blonde in two-inch skirt and dazzling fairy tale slippers, and entreats her to play his loving wife for his parents’ benefit. The homecoming goes a long way to explain Billy’s aggressive insecurity: his indifferent mom (Anjelica Huston) is a rabid football obsessive, while his dad (Ben Gazzara) is taciturn and hostile, though taken with Layla. The cruel caricature of this sourly funny episode is tempered by Layla’s sweetness. Billy’s turmoil is redeemed in her simplicity. A stimulating film, this reaches parts other movies don’t even know exist.

Alternately satirical and romantic, full of pain and humor, Buffalo ’66 is a winner.

Kevin Thomas, LA Times

Intimate, idiosyncratic and very funny.

Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

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