Buffalo 66 [1998]

Greasy, resentful and just released from a five-year turn in the pokey -- he'd made a false confession to get out of a $10,000 debt to a bookie -- he has returned to his home town of Buffalo, New York, because he is desperately grasping for anything familiar to give his life some semblance of control.

He visits his vile, hateful parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara)but only after wandering into a dance studio and impulsively kidnapping Layla (Christina Ricci), an innocently voluptuous tap student, to pose as his wife. It's a pathetic attempt to persuade them he has beaten the odds of his unfortunate upbringing, but it backfires.

"Buffalo '66" is a gloomy, slice-of-life drama about people with miserable lives, but at the same time it's a vicious satire of dysfunctional suburbanites.

Failing to find security at home, Billy drags Layla to the bowling alley of his childhood championships -- only to succumb to gutter ball syndrome. Later he demands she pose with him for photo booth snapshots to mail home the next few Christmases and feign that they're a happy couple "spanning time."

Adorably Rubenesque and dyed platinum blonde, Ricci gives a gradually and subtly revealing performance as Layla that helps cement the creative vivacity of the film.

Employing picture-in-picture flashbacks, subjective cameras, and an optically shocking, pioneering technique of pivoting around within a freeze-frame, "Buffalo '66" has an edgy, experimental air to it without feeling gimmicky. But as distinct as Gallo's style is -- the whole picture has a slightly grainy, over-developed look to it -- his visual stunts are used mostly to pry inside Billy's head, aiding the film's emotionally profundity instead of distracting from it.


amazing   July 9, 2004
Sam Bennis (UK)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

What a fantastic film. Vincent Gallo is simply a genius. Directing the film, starring as the lead role, and making the music too!

The plot is simple yet absolutely true to life, the acting is first class with a great cast. The camera shots are fabulously artistic, as is Mr Gallo's character in most of his films. I especially loved moments like; when Billy and Layla leave Billy's parents house and argue in the car. At not one single moment does the camera focus on their faces, but on the road ahead, leaving the audience to imagine how they look.

Two things really stood out in this film:
. Throughout, you learn so much about Billy Brown. You meet his friends, his family and live his life. However, all you get to know about Layla, is her name...Layla. You don't even know her surname.
. Vincent Gallo's bright red boots. They're so cool. I want a pair. If anyone knows of some place which sells them, please contact me at my email address.


Disappointing   October 1, 2005
6 out of 22 found this review helpful

I've heard great things about this film, but I was disappointed on watching.

There are a lot of great things about it. I think it was very well directed, it looked great and there were lots of beautiful and memorable shots. The acting was uniformally brilliant, especially Christina Ricci who did amazing things with a fairly underwritten part.

My problem with the film is that the central character, Billy Brown, was so fundamentally dislikeable that it became very hard to care about what happened to him, or even believe in the plot. He starts off agressive and bullying, and is by turns pathetic, violent and misogynistic. I know the audience learning more about his family and his life is probably meant to give basis to this, and to make it understandable, but it doesn't get away from the fact that he is an unlikeable person. Which is a major problem when the film is about him.

So, not at all a bad film, but could have been so much better if the character were someone that I could begin to care for. This severely lets down much of the good work done elsewhere.


Compulsively entertaining indie flick   April 22, 2007
M. J. Pucci (Milton Keynes, UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Buffalo `66 is as fine an example of independent film-making as you're likely to find. Vincent Gallo's quirky, semi-autobiographical film, in which he stars as Billy Brown - a slightly unhinged, emotionally undernourished convict who kidnaps the surprisingly willing Layla (Christina Ricci) to pose as his wife - is easily the controversial New Yorker's best work to date and features stellar performances from the likes of Angelica Huston (almost unrecognisable as Brown's uncaring, football-obsessed mother Janet) and Jan-Michael Vincent - Brown's long-suffering best friend, Goon. Gallo is equally impressive in the role of Billy Brown; he's unpleasant, and prone to violence, but not entirely dislikeable. In fact, at times, he's almost child-like, and we sympathise with Brown, largely because of what we come to know of his background. The scene in which Billy visits his parents' house, for example, is one of classic suburban dysfunction - and hilarious at that.

There's a sense at times that Gallo is playing himself, rather than actually 'acting'; at others, he appears to be hamming it up a bit for comic effect (see the scene in which he forces Layla to pose with him in a photo booth and repeats the phrase "we're spanning time" ad nauseum) but he can be forgiven on both counts as a) the film is, as mentioned, a semi-autographical work and b) he is undeniably amusing.

Where this film impresses most, however, is in the sheer inventiveness and effectiveness of some of Gallo's techniques as director and Lance Acord's cinematography. Buffalo `66 has all the hallmarks of an indie, art-house film - but, refreshingly, these features actually contribute to our understanding of Brown's character and the advancement of the film's plot.

Brilliant stuff.

Matt Pucci


Couldnt take my eyes off the screen, amazing!!!!!   September 20, 2002
joseph hanak, film buff (WGC Herts)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I'd like to start by saying that this is a superb film. The performances are fantastic and the filming is artistic. This film touched me in ways I never knew.
It's really a tale of two lives. The 1st is Billy's. He is a troubled man who in his childhood suffered abuse from his father, neglect from his mother, and was ignored by his only love Wendy of whom he met in kindergarten. The 2nd is Layla. An innocent young girl who falls head over heels in love for Billy despite the abuse he gives her.

This films best quality, other than the fact that the screenplay is so original is that the characters love for each other is so clear to us but not them. It is poetic in that Layla is so blinded by love to see that Billy doesent appreciate her prescence and Billy is so blinded by his own hate to see that Layla would gladly spend the rest of her life with him.
The acting by Gallo is phenomenal and the love embraces near the end are adorable. You can always trust Christina Ricci to do a good job!
This video is a must have for any boy with respect for art and any girl with a box of tissues, and basically any couple who know a classic love story when they see one.