![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/b/buffalo66.jpg)
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66 begins with one man's desperate search for a bathroom, and never really deviates. Indeed, the entire film is centered around the idea of searching: searching for bathrooms, for acceptance, for love, for revenge — concepts with which we're all familiar. Although the approach is unorthodox, it's an appropriate way to tell this particular tale. Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is, quite simply, a loser. Recently paroled after a five-year stint in the slammer, he's about to pay a visit to his parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzarra), whom he hasn't seen in over half a decade. Determined to convince them that the past five years of his life have been pure bliss, he informs his mother that he recently got married — a plan which backfires when his mother insists that he bring his wife along. So Billy kidnaps a dancer named Layla (a spunky performance by Christina Ricci) and forces her into the role. Many of Buffalo '66's finest moments belonging to Ricci, who retains her composure even while being kidnapped. Much less satisfying is a subplot involving Billy's plan to assassinate a Buffalo football player for missing a 1990 field goal, which is alien and impersonal — everything the rest of the movie is not. But Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzarra are suitably slimy as Billy's disenchanted parents, who'd rather watch football than talk to the unwanted son they haven't seen in five years. And Gallo himself (who wrote, starred, and directed) is a fine Billy, containing more substance beneath his rough exterior than we initially suspect. Good transfer, trailer, textual supplements. Keep-case.
—Joe Barlow
