Buffalo '66 (1998)

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Directed by Vincent Gallo.

Starring Kevin Corrigan, Ben Gazzara, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Vincent Gallo.

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Actor Vincent Gallo (The Funeral, Palookaville) made his feature directorial debut with this drama about convict Billy Brown (Gallo), released after half a decade spent behind bars. Drifting into downtown Buffalo, Billy kidnaps teen Layla (Christina Ricci) and has her pose as his loving wife when he visits his parents (Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston). Layla praises him and goes along with his fanciful tale that they met at CIA headquarters, where they both worked. Mom and dad not only fall for this, they are entranced by Layla, who soon begins to embellish her act. When she claims to be pregnant by Billy, he hustles her out to a bowling alley and on to a restaurant, where they run into trampy Wendy (Rosanna Arquette), who might be Billy's former girlfriend. Eventually, Billy seems ready to track down and kill the person he feels was responsible for his five years in the slammer. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Weekly Theme for July 21: Road ...
by mercurial in Weekly Theme

liked it.

"With the summer months waning and my own plans for vacation steadily approaching, it seemed apropos to dedicate this week's theme to that equally loved and despised category of film known as the road movie. From the family-friendly RV to the magnificently perverse Natural Born Killers, the road movie appears in countless incarnations and across all genres. Personally, Almost Famous has remained not only my favorite road movie but overall one as well. The aforementioned Natural Born Killers, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Dogma, Little Miss Sunshine, Boys on the Sideand Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas round off the list. Others include Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation and The Living End; the various Aussie flicks like the Mad Max trilogy and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; the Indie hits such as Easy Rider and Buffalo '66; and lastly Alexander Payne's About Schmidt and Sideways. So bring out the map and let us in on some your favorite road movies! " [More]

Buffalo '66 (1998, USA, Vincent ...
by CinemaRian in CinemaRian Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"Buffalo '66 is the kind of movie that thinks a character spending twenty minuets looking for a place to go the bathroom is funny. I found the movie only slightly more entertaining than having an experince like that in real life. The movie stars director Vincent Gallo as Billy, a complete loser, who falls in love with Layla (Christina Ricci) a woman who is completely insane. Billy has just been released from prison after he lost $10,000 gambling on the Super Bowl, which was lost at the last minute when Chris Wood (who I learn from Wikipedia is based on real football player Chris Norwood) blew a free through and lost the game. Wanting to impress his parents, he kidnaps Layla and forces her to act like his wife (have the laughs started yet?). He then decides to kill Chris Wood, who now own a strip club, because the sportsman ruined his life. Billy is own of the most unlikable movie protagonists ever. One of the hallmarks of a great director is how they are able to make you like c ... " [More]

Buffalo ’66 (1998, USA, Vincent ...
by kristen in kristen Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"Vincent Gallo stars in his debut feature Buffalo '66 as Billy Brown, a despicable protagonist that we somehow come to understand. The year before James L. Brooks directed romantic comedy As Good as it Gets, which stars Jack Nicholson as a similar hateable protagonist. The difference is that Nicholson plays a likeable disgruntled old man. We are never dared to hate him because the end of the movie promises redemption and a shallow understanding of a complex mental disorder. What Buffalo '66 does is create a ballsy character that the audience in no way sympathizes with (after all, he kidnaps adorable Layla, played by Christina Ricci, and continually insults her) and then, after thoroughly frightening erratic behavior comes to a sincere believable epiphany. After five years in prison for a gambling mistake that Billy refuses to own up to he is released. The movie begins with his release into society. Out of place, Billy races to urinate but cannot find a bathroom. ... " [More]

Re:Top 5 movies directed by an ...
by Risselada in Top 5

loved it.

"I'm having some difficulty actually deciding if some people qualify or not.Certainly Orson Welles, if he was not already often in contention for the greatest director of all time would have been well known as one of the greatest actors.Roman Polanski is surely more well known as a director, but has done just as much acting, and was an actor before being a director. The same with Vittorio De Sica.Many comedians are just as recognizable as actors, writers, and directors. Often doing all roles in the same film. Think of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Or Jaques Tati. Today think of Mel Brooks, Harold Ramis, Christopher Guest. Terry Jones??Also many kung fu stars. Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Sammo Hung.And what about classical actors where, acting is clearly where they are most recognized, but they are also renown in directing of theatre and film. A production directed by Lawrence Olivier or Kenneth Branagh is surely not an anomaly.I'm actually most interested in a po ... " [More]

It's A Crime This Wasn't A Mass ...
by JakeStevens in JakeStevens Blog

loved it.

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"I LOVE how dry the humor is in this film. To tell you the truth, I didn't even realize it WAS a comedy the first time I saw it - I just thought it was weird. The film plays like Gallo's character Billy is telling it to someone, and this is what it looks like in THEIR head - everything is exaggerated and surreal. It is in turns heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny, and Gallo has shot up my "favorites" list immediately. Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston turn in fine performances (they were robbed by not even being considered for Oscar nominations, in my opinion) and Christina Ricci has never looked better as a blonde than she does in this film. Highly recommended, especially for the Wes Anderson-loving crowd. " [More]

Craig Baldwin’s New Film in SF
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

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"If you like Next to Heaven, Rob Parrish’s found-footage noir web series that we talked about a couple of weeks ago on FilmCouch, chances are good that you’d probably get a kick out of Craig Baldwin. He’s probably best known for his 1995 film, Sonic Outlaws, an documentary which merged form and content by using montages rife with pop culture appropriations to tell the story of Negativland, who were essentially the first band to cause an internationally-publicized legal incident by creating a mash-up. All of the issues that intersect in Sonic Outlaws–piracy, fair use, underground artists vs. corporate interests–are totally current today, and yet Sonic Outlaws documents a world that’s entirely pre-digital. There are tons of clips from the film on Google Video, or you can buy a DVD directly from Baldwin’s DVD label, Other Cinema Digital. Or, if you’re in San Francisco, you can also show up tomorrow night at Artists’ Television Access,?? where Baldwin’s weekly Other Cinema series will i ... " [More]

Re: Latest unknown fave
by Risselada in Viewing with a purpose

loved it.

"Yeah just extremely watchable, that's definitely what I thought of Gallo in Buffalo '66. Gazarra's great too. I feel like somehow he only needs to do very little things to differentiate himself in different roles. Like he's not trying at all to be a different person and yet somehow it comes out exactly appropriate for that situation. I'll reference The Big Lebowski and Happiness for a couple examples.I've seen the commentary for The Thing as well. I also coincidentally had just seen Big Trouble in Little China at a friends house and asked if I could borrow it to watch the commentary later. Just after that I stumbled upon a web site with a list of the supposed best DVD commentaries and for one of them they said it was a tie up between The Thing and Big Touble in Little China. Both of them are Carpenter and Russell. Not always entirely informative, but you do feel relaxe during them. Kurt Russell has to be one of the laughiest joyful sounding people I ... " [More]

Re: Latest unknown fave
by Risselada in Viewing with a purpose

loved it.

"Yeah I almost ALWAYS watch the commentary if there is any as well. Even if I didn't like the movie. Because I usually rent a movie because I thought it would be interesting or good. So if it isn't I want to see if I can get a better reason as to why. So I check out the commentary. Sometimes it's a complete waste like when the commentator just narrates what's obviously happening in the movie. It's also annoying when they talk about irrelevent events or things about the movie or people who were working on a movie. I don't really care if the director just called up the guy who did the grips a week ago and found out his son just won his little league tournament or some weird pointless fact like that. If the story is irrelevent but interesting in iteself maybe, but unless it's a Herzog or Jodorowsky movie it's less likely.Anyways I heard a commentary from Miike as well. It was for Ichi the Killer. Very interesting to hear what the approach is fr ... " [More]

Schwinnfender on Buffalo '66
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

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"I was just talking with some friends about the coming of age genre. You'll know you're watching a coming of age film when in the first 10 minutes there's one of the following:a) A funeralb) A road tripc) A graduationd) All of the aboveGarden State is probably the most recent example of a popular coming of age film. However, dozens flood the festival circuit each year. For a recent graduate of film school, it's the most accessible story in their life experience. The mid-twenties are all about coming of age. Like taking the job you're parents didn't want for you or finding out how shallow that guy or girl was you dated in high school. We all have to come of age and, although on the individual level it’s a life revelation, a lot of us come of age in much the same way. So a lot of mediocre films each year are built on a road trip, a funeral, running into the old girlfriend, what have you. They roll through film festivals and are quickly forgotten. But every few years a really great com ... " [More]

movie year countdown #9 - 1998 ...
by Risselada in Risselada Blog

loved it.

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"This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”. To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.Buffalo '66Well it's been a while since I've seen this. I've gotten behind on making my reviews for my movie list. So I think I'm going to start plowing through them and making them short and sweet.There was something really different about this movie. Vincent Gallo's character was a total dick for most of it. I mean he got crapped on a lot yeah, but it was hard to be sympathetic with him. At the same time, by the end there was a lot I could identify with.Really weird how Ricci's character seemed to comply with him so much. She was obviously just as disturbed and ready for a change. I have to comment on her revealing outfit. It was nice. That's all on that.I liked the very simple but effective editing and framing techniques. People were sometimes almost entirely cut out of the frame when you would have normally ... " [More]

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