The film begins with Billy (Vincent Gallo) getting released from prison. He waits outside the gates for several hours before asking to be let back in to use the bathroom. Getting denied that, he hops on a bus into town but cannot find anywhere that will let him use the facilities. Eventually he finds a dance studio and tries to use their bathroom but is frustrated by an encounter with someone else there. He calls home to inform his parents he will be home soon but has lied to them for years about where he has been, including a lie that he is happily married. When his mother insists on meeting his “wife,” he kidnaps one of the girls at the dance studio and forces her to play the role.
This woman is Layla (Christina Ricci). Billy re-christens her Wendy Balsam, the name of a grade school crush, and forces her to drive the two to his parents’ house because her car is a manual which he cannot drive. While there she plays the part well, almost too well but bickering and violent outbursts from Billy’s father (Ben Gazzara) and aloofness, and general dismissal, from his mother (an unrecognizable Anjelica Houston) convince Billy that she oversold it and his lie about working for the CIA is no longer believable.
After leaving his parents’ home he tells Layla that she is free to go but she no longer wants to leave. Instead she accompanies him to a bowling alley, then later to a hotel room where she makes it clear that she is in love with him. But he has a personal vendetta against a former Buffalo Bills player who lost the Super Bowl a few years previous and that loss ended up causing Billy to go to prison in the first place thanks to a large bet he couldn’t cover. Billy wants to kill the man, whom he considers responsible for it all, and then himself.
Vincent Gallo has a penchant for playing dark moody characters and this is no different. His rawness is unnerving. When he first lets loose on an unsuspecting fellow bathroom patron it’s sudden and violent, filled with discriminatory language and threats of assault. When he first kidnaps Layla, it’s uncertain if he will actually harm her or just using the threat of harm to keep her from fleeing. Certainly there is the very real threat that when he’s done with her he’ll have to kill her to keep her silent. Fortunately for him he kidnapped the one girl he needn’t worry about fleeing.
Layla is a complete enigma in this film. After her initial response to being kidnapped she calms down quickly and never even considers trying to get away. We never learn a thing about her beyond that she is a tap dancer. This paints a portrait that could come across pencil thin yet Ricci plays the part as if it is a fully fleshed out character. What we learn of her can only be inferred from her interactions with Billy. She sells the faux marriage to his parents and is genuinely hurt when he’s upset how it comes out. Later, in one of the few cute moments of the film she will act playfully with Billy while he’s trying to get pictures of the two together in a Photo Booth. She’s a woman who apparently has gone her whole life without any attention and love and as soon as she gets either from him she latches on and won’t take the opportunities before her to escape.
Vincent Gallo is anything but a conventional filmmaker. There are choices made here that are brilliant and then there are others that stand out and make you question why things were done. For instance, during the bowling alley scene for a couple of minutes the lights dim and Layla does an impromptu tap dancing number, a spotlight following her as she moves in front of the lanes. The reasons why allude me and it feels like it was thrown in just because. It threatens to come across as artistic douchebaggery, yet when it is happening I couldn’t take my eyes off her, mesmerized by the awkwardness and grace juxtaposed. Likewise the scene at the very end when Billy goes out alone with a gun to rid the world of the player he blames for his time in prison. This set piece is highly stylized and offers a few unexpected surprises.
At the end of the day this is a story about two very unhappy people finding each other. But this is no rom-com and there is no imagining a happily ever after once the credits role. This is no Doris Fay and Rock Hudson film. The ending is ambiguous enough that I don’t have any idea where things may go after this. Billy has realized that he loves Layla back and goes back to her. Love comes in many forms and maybe this will be good for him. Realistically, however, people don’t change overnight and there is a sense of tragedy to the final shot that belies the traditional happy ending.
Gallo has made an artistic movie that goes in directions not wholly predictable. Buffalo ‘66 is a unique twist on the love story and it mostly works on that level. It’s not for fans of rom-coms but it still tells the story of two people finding love where neither expected it. It’s well acted all around, especially by Ricci who’s saddled with no character background yet creates a character wholly by her actions and expressions. This is not a movie for everyone. Billy may turn off viewers early on with his sullen demeanor and penchant to burst out in anger over the littlest of things; but his character has a lot of vulnerabilities and a childhood that would turn even the best of kids bitter and angry. It is a film that is infinitely watchable, especially when paying close attention to Christina Ricci’s acting. She showed a complexity that is just fascinating to watch and interpret.
Release Date: June 26, 1998
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Houston
Directed By: Vincent Gallo
Comments
Post a Comment