|
Advertisement |
Overall Rating
  Awesome: 46.32%
Worth A Look: 21.05%
Average: 11.58%
Pretty Bad: 11.58%
Total Crap: 9.47%
4 reviews, 71 user ratings
|
|
| Buffalo '66 |
by Chris Parry
"Depressing flick, but extremely well shot. Mixed bag."
|
This is 'slo-mo train wreck' of a movie. It leaves you with no sense of learning or joy or excitement or relief. It's just a very depressing, very morose event that for some reason you can't look away from.What Buffalo '66 does have going for it is an artistic tilt. Vince Gallo is tyring to be a little auteur. Bully for him. His 'vision' gives this film a feel and atmosphere it really needs to get through the first half hour. Casting himself as the main character is a bold (or bigheaded) step. Giving 90% of the lines in the movie to his character is an even bolder (or biggerheaded) step. Having Christina Ricci fall in love with his annoying, riling, fucked up character is borderline unbelievable.
Here's the story. Billy is a fucked up human being. The result of parents that would make you leave your kids with Jeffrey Dahmer if they were the only two options on the babysitting roster, he's fresh out of prison and desperate to make his parents think he's a big-shot, he kidnaps Ricci and forces her to play 'happy wife'. Ricci, for whatever reason, seems happy to do so.
Ricci doesn't really exude much of anything in her character, and I guess that's what was required. Gallo exudes plenty in his babbling, ranting, raving, excrutiating role. But just when you feel like you're enjoying the film, you get visions of Calvin Klein ads. His look, his mannerisms, they're straight out of CK, and it get's bloody annoying.
I wanted to reach into the screen and shave this son of a bitch for the entire two and a bit hours.
The cast is star packed. Ricci, Rosanna Arquette, Anjelica Huston, but unfortunately they're all playing tiny roles or extremely annoying ones. To make it all the more depressing, Mickey Rourke and Jan Michael Vincent have roles and seem to be saying "look at how fucked up I am", not just as characters but in reality. Jan Michael Vincent seems barely able to talk, let alone act.
The result of all this is extreme depression throughout. There are no up moments. Dead puppies, shiny red boots, groping fathers, a lot of "don't touch me", a retarded boyhood pal called Goon/Rocky (played to perfection by the always superb Kevin Corrigan - the most underrated actor around), it's all very sordid.But it's extremely well put together. If Gallo only has monologued tales of boyhood gone wrong in his head, then he should perhaps steer clear of further scripting. As an actor he seems somewhat limited in the type of roles he can pull off, so perhaps that's not his future path, but he should direct a whole lot. This film was imaginatively put together, shot and edited and it's a sign of good things to come.
Let's just hope this non-actor is happy being a good director. Are you listening Quentin?
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=105&reviewer=1
originally posted: 11/13/98 21:17:58
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
 |
USA
21-Jul-1998 (R)
DVD: 17-Jun-2003
UK
N/A
Australia
08-Oct-1998
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
