Buffalo 66

In Buffalo '66 twisted,but strangely alluring parolee Billy Brown has, in the hands of Vincent Gallo -- writer, director and star of this bleak, outstandingly creative film -- a seething, angered depth, molded by a lifetime of parental abuse, poor judgment and very bad luck and his wounded, embittered performance is captivating, and so is his filmmaking.

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.

This film is just bursting with absolute joy, very intense at times hilarious at others, vincent gallo's acting and directing are genius, you start by hating the character and as the film progress's you begin to really empathise with the situations he has been put through...christina ricci is also brilliant i especially enjoyed the tap dancing scene and the excellent ending...definatly recommended to someone who likes there movies offbeat but full of charm.

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