Review of Buffalo '66 (1998) by Xgary X — 25 Apr 2012

A small-time waster fresh out of prison kidnaps a girl and forces her to pretend to be his wife in an attempt to fool his dysfunctional parents into believing he's living the good life. Buffalo '66 is trying oh-so-hard for "indie chic".

Writer-director Vincent Gallo essentially presents us with a love story for emotional retards, as his "hero" Billy has clearly been emotionally scarred by his upbringing at the hands of his Denver Broncos obsessed mother and self absorbed, emotionally distant father.

It's a nice idea and I'm sure female fashionistas who fancy themselves as preferring "troubled" and "complex" men (as long as they dress like rock stars and have perfect bone structure, of course.

..) to jock types think it's the best thing since sliced bread. The biggest problem is with Gallo himself; he is clearly such a self obsessed narcissist that instead of a traumatized, insecure victim, he comes across as an obnoxious, arrogant asshole and as such it seems deeply unlikely that such an appealing creature as Christina Ricci would have anything to do with him.

It has some nice visual touches and I certainly warmed to the film more and more as it went, but in the end it all seems just a little too pretentious and a little too unconvincing to be the work of genius that Gallo himself clearly thinks it is.