Review of Buffalo '66 (1998) by Eric A — 29 Sep 2010

Billy Brown (Gallo) is the hero of "Buffalo '66." As a hectoring misanthrope, he's hard to like. As an emotional cipher, he's impossible to ignore. There's probably more than a little bit of Gallo in Billy, which explains his tendency to overplay his wounded-bird wistfulness and hair-trigger temper (though this is occasionally funny, like when he's confronted with a bowler just as good as him or with a "shifter car" that he's unable to drive).

It's a shame, because the rest of the cast shines when Gallo allows them to. Though, perhaps, the emotions are so amped because "Buffalo '66" is nearly 2 hours of catharsis - a feeling the film doesn't completely earn but one that it obviously understands wells and communicates stylishly.