Steve Rhodes Reviews:
Buffalo 66
-1/2
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes' reviews are presented online as a service to our readers. They remain the property of Steve Rhodes and are not substantially edited by this publication nor do they necessarily represent the views of its publisher, editor or other staff members.
Billy Brown is an irritating character who suffers from diarrhea of the mouth. Just released from prison, he kidnaps himself a girl to take home to his parents as his trophy wife. "If you make me look bad, I swear to God, I'll never talk to you again," he threatens her. Regrettably, he doesn't follow through.
Vincent Gallo, who has appeared in numerous independent films, including THE FUNERAL and PALOOKAVILLE, directs for the first time in BUFFALO 66. Gallo also composed the music, co-wrote the script, and stars as Billy, the story's pitiful loser.
Starting as a black comedy and eventually dissolving into tragedy, the movie features well-known actors in unbelievable and unlikable roles. Only Christina Ricci as Layla, his fake wife, is a credible and interesting character.
Layla, with her sheet-white skin and dressed in a powder-blue miniskirt with matching stockings, low-cut dress, and sequined tap shoes, shows class in every one of her scenes. Even when she isn't talking, her eyes speak volumes.
Billy, on the other hand, has the wasted look of a skid-row druggie. His week-old beard and greasy hair top off his emaciated look. His bright red boots anchor his otherwise ragged outfit.
Billy's parents are cliches. His dad, played by Ben Gazzara, wants to keep hugging his sexy new daughter-in-law, when he isn't lip-synching some old songs for her.
His mom, played by a hard-to-recognize Anjelica Huston, is still mad at Billy. It seems that the only Buffalo Bills's football game that she ever missed was because of his birth, and they lost that game. When he visits, she watches reruns on television rather than talk to him. With remote control firmly in hand, she ignores him. (Although I rarely watch football, I found myself watching the game as a way to kill time during the long, contrived family discussions and staring sessions.)
Gallo loves staging scenes in ways that reek of too much attempted cuteness. In a badly scripted scene at the kitchen table, the family engages in small talk while the stiffly composed image has them stuck on the screen like a two-dimensional kid's cartoon. He lets scenes go on forever, as when Billy and Layla take an enormous number of photos at a cheap photo booth.
Typical of the ridiculousness of the plot is the source of the father's anger at the dinner table. He screams at the son because the son's dinner knife is pointing in the father's direction.
Although the characters' affectations can be maddeningly annoying, some are so ridiculous as to be campy fun. At the top of this list is Christina Ricci's tap dance number. Looking like something straight out of a school's hokey talent show, she dances away under a spotlight at Billy's favorite place—a bowling alley.
BUFFALO 66 runs 1:50. It is not rated but would be an R for profanity, violence, and nudity.
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