ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Tweekums Billy Brown has just got out of prison having served five years for a crime he did not commit. While inside he let is parents believe that he was busy with a government job, living with his childhood sweetheart Wendy Balsam. He goes to visit his parents and his mother wants to meet Wendy… so he kidnaps a young woman and forces her to play the role. Layla, the woman concerned plays the role rather well; rather too well in fact as she gushes about how she fell in love with Billy while working for the CIA! While there we learn more about Billy and his unloving parents; we also learn how he ended up in jail and that he plans to kill the man he holds responsible… the former kicker for the Buffalo Bills who missed an important kick that meant Billy lost a $10,000 bet; a bet he couldn't pat. After leaving the family home Billy and Layla go bowling, go out for a hot chocolate then find a hotel before Billy goes off to seek his final revenge.This is an unusual little film with a strange pair of protagonists. Billy is initially hard to like; he is a kidnapper after all, and Layla is a mystery; we know nothing about her including why she goes along with Billy even after he says she can go… since the whole story takes place over the course of a few hours it can't be Stockholm Syndrome! Vincent Gallo does a fine job as Billy and Christina Ricci is equally good in the role of Layla. Gallo didn't just play the male lead; he also wrote this interesting story and directed the film. Some parts of the film are likely to leave the viewer squirming; the scenes in the family house are painful to watch for anybody would isn't keen on socially awkward scenes! There are also some laughs to be had along the way. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody looking for something a bit different; it won't be for everybody but I enjoyed it.

SnoopyStyle Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is bitter and angry after five years in prison. He gets released, looking for a place to pee and kidnaps tap dancing student Layla (Christina Ricci). He had lied to his parents (Ben Gazzara, Anjelica Huston) that he's been married while away with a government job. She has to be his pretend wife Wendy Balsam. He is severely damaged and she's oddly interested in him. Billy had put $10k on Buffalo to win but the kicker Scott Wood misses the game winning field goal. Billy vows to kill him. His friend Goon (Kevin Corrigan) claims that Scott now owns a strip club. Billy and Layla bump into the real Wendy Balsam (Rosanna Arquette) who Billy had a crush on. Billy is a really annoying jerk. A few times, I almost laugh but mostly, he is really really annoying. I like the imaginative visual style in this indie but I really can't stand Billy. It's a good performance from Gallo. His character shows more vulnerability later on but his defensiveness is also very pathetic. The words too-good-for-him keep coming to mind. It's not good chemistry as much as morbid fascination with their relationship.

paul2001sw-1 Vincent Gallo's darkly comic, ultimately touching debut film, 'Buffalo 66', has a stellar cast playing unglamourous roles and a central turn from Gallo himself as insecure loser Billy, fresh out of prison and back in his native Buffalo, but with no real sense of home. The film departs occasionally from literal realism is a mostly effective, entertaining manner, but behind the quirkiness, this is a serious movie about the ability to be love and be loved. It is, however, all about Gallo: Christina Ricci's character presumably has some issues of her own (why else would she be hanging out with a loser like Billy?) but instead of exploring them, the film allows her at least a hint of the role of the forgiving angel, sent (or rather kidnapped) to rescue an otherwise doomed man. But it's still a successful film, one that visits some dark places, but brings the viewer out the other side.

tieman64 "Buffalo 66" was the feature length directorial debut of writer-director Vincent Gallo. The film stars Gallo himself as Billy Brown, a young man who has recently been released from prison. In an effort to impress his parents, Brown kidnaps a young woman, played by Christina Ricci, and forces her to pose as his wife.In real life, Gallo has a reputation for being an arrogant, irritating narcissist. Many believe this persona to be a sham, Gallo turning his life into a kind of performance art piece. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. The point, though, is that for much of "Buffalo 66's" running time, Billy is portrayed as a supremely unlikeable jerk. Gradually, though, Gallo begins to reveal where Billy's more abrasive qualities stem from. The film then ends with Billy turning his back on hate, anger, jealousy and blame. Elsewhere it contains brief sequences in which characters dance, sing or watch television, little vignettes which speak to lives of regret. Be they Billy, Billy's parents, or an ageing sportsman called Scott Wood, everyone in the film seems weighed down by past disappointments. Using flashback sequences which frame the past within television boxes (and later, photographs), the film perhaps implicates the Hollywood dream factory itself in setting up and shattering illusions."Buffalo 66" builds to a very touching final act. But it also contains a number of overly quirky moments which clash awkwardly with the film's more realist tone. These include a "bullet time" sequence which pre-date similar sequences in 1999's "The Matrix". The film co-stars Mickey Rourke and Rossana Arquette.8/10 – Worth one viewing.