Review: Buffalo '66

"I don't want you to try your best, I want you to do it right," Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) directs Layla (Christina Ricci), his kewpie doll companion, as they pose for pictures. "These photos are us spanning time." Buffalo ‘66, Gallo's crazysexycool directorial debut, is by no means right and not far from best. It is a visually inventive and solidly crafted work.

Billy's mother (played with slummy verve by Anjelica Huston) has never forgiven him for having the gall to be born during the Buffalo Bills championship game. Billy has never forgiven the Buffalo Bills for losing the championship game on which he made a huge bet. Their loss cost him five years in jail (his bookie asked him to switch places with a convicted friend). Now he's out of prison and determined to kill Scott Woods, the player who missed the field goal and lost the game. After Woods is dead, Billy plans on shooting himself. But before all that, he must pay his parents a visit.

The visit itself is inherently problematic -- more on that to come. What exacerbates the problem is the house of lies that Billy has built and sold to his parents: they think he's a government employee and married. He can fake being a government employee -- he was one, in a way. But what about the wife? No problem: he kidnaps a pretty tap dancer named Layla and bullies her into helping him pull one over on his parents. Strangely enough, she complies.

The family gathering is an exemplary sequence that tickles the funny bone while clamping your heart. Per Billy's orders, Layla uses every available opportunity to fete Billy. One hilarious scene has her weaving a more complicated version of how she and Billy met than he expected. Mom is too busy watching a Buffalo Bills game to care. Dad (Ben Gazzarra) is too busy taking a shine to Layla -- "Daddy loves his little girl." When Layla asks to see pictures of Billy, Mom distractedly asks, "Where's the Billy picture?" An innocuously placed knife, of all things, sets off World War III. Dysfunction junction, anyone?

Gallo has an observant, idiosyncratic eye and the film benefits heavily. His circular dialogue, co-written by Alison Bagnall, wanders into indulgent tangents too often. When he does keep his focus, Gallo's roundabout banter elicits heartfelt laughs. Still, his talents are clearly more visual than verbal -- which is fine, film is a visual medium, after all. He employs creative ways of introducing flashbacks and his fade-ins and outs make pointed commentaries on the scenes they are being used for. His orgiastic visual bent culminates in the year's most dazzling display of legerdemain that takes as much from Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video as it does from early Martin Scorsese.

Gallo gets a little help from his friends: Mickey Rourke, Jan-Michael Vincent, Kevin Corrigan, and Rosanna Arquette put in appearances. Rourke does his Godfather impression, Vincent looks tired, Corrigan is a hoot, and Arquette sizzles. Gallo himself offers a wise, witty portrayal of a volatile yet endearing loser. However, there's a part of me that feels I'm giving him more credit than he's due. Let's not forget that Gallo created his character (one that borders on autobiographical) -- he may be canny enough to exploit his strengths and downplay his weaknesses. His previous films (The House of the Spirits, Arizona Dream, The Funeral, Truth or Consequences, N.M.) prove that he's an edgy performer. A performer, not an actor.

I was, however, quite struck by Ricci. Sporting glittery blue eye shadow and glossy lips, she finally abandons her trademark sullenness and convincingly portrays a soft-spoken, mild-mannered earth mother in the guise of a baby doll. She is especially touching as she falls deeper in love with the closed-off Billy. Their crawl towards human contact results in an unexpectedly haunting scene. "When are you coming back?" she asks plaintively as he prepares to fulfill his mission. "I really like you. I'm going to be really sad if you don't come back." Oddly enough, I would have been, too.

Buffalo '66

Directed by: Vincent Gallo

Written by: Vincent Gallo, Alison Bagnall

Starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Jan-Michael Vincent, Kevin Pollak, Alex Karras, Kevin Corrigan