Vincent Gallo is (in)famous for his film Brown bunny which was booed in Cannes and everywhere else ("I will one day be thin but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of the Brown bunny" said one critic, who changed his mind later on, when Gallo re-edited the film). Sure, that film is self-absorbed as hell, but it's not that bad. Today I watched Buffalo '66, which I saw the first time maybe 5 years ago. I don't know what to think about it. Gallo directs, writes, composes and acts the leading role. Billy is released from jail. He needs to pee. He goes to some place where a group is having dancing practice. When finally in a toilet, he is freaked out because a guy looks at him the wrong way. Obviously, Billy is an asshole. He needs a car, and he brutally forces one of the dancers, Layla (Christina Ricci) to drive him to his parents' house. He hasn't told them he was in jail and she is to pretend to be his wife. She makes her best to play along and tries to be nice to them, acting the role clumsily, saying too much. But her mum (Anjelica Huston!) is primarily focused on watching a sports game on TV while her dad mostly ogles the girls' tits. It turns out Billy was in jail for having made a false confession to save a bookie's ass, a person to whom he owes money because of stupid gambling. He now decides to kill the player who "made" him lose his money. The guy owns a strip joint. --- The rest of the story goes on from there, but with many digressions and weird little twists. Most of all, this is a story about a guy who seems to have no clue about who he is and what he is to do in life. From the first scene on, we get the idea that this guy is intent on destroying everything that comes in his way, most of all himself.
Gallo's film has a strange surge. It just does. It's hard not to care about what happens. There are few moments - these moments arrive at the very end - where you can relax and stop chewing on your fingers. Gallo really knows stuff about how to breathe life into a scene. The scenes at the dinner table - the camera swapping places so that different faces are the center of attention - is outright torturous to watch. But it works. Once in a while I start wondering whether Gallo does not know too well which buttons to push. Sometimes all these gloomy scenes become depressive in a way that gives the viewer reason to think that Gallo has worked his ass off to make them semm that way. And that's where my doubts settle in. But as a matter of fact, there's a dark sense of humor that saves most scenes from that - without it, this movie might have been unbearable to watch.
Another issue is the way the relationship between kidnapper and kidnapped develops during the film. There is a mutual dependency between them, sure. But as the focus of the film lies heavily on Billy, there are a few times when I ask myself if this is another film in which we see a troubled male (who sees himself as having to choose between LOVE and ANNIHILATION) being saved by a pretty girl who might be just as fucked up as he is, but who for all her Issues draws him out of his shell by paying attention and holding his hand. Well, decide for yourselves.
Buffalo '66 might be an annoying film. But in terms of style, it is very, very effective in what it tries to do.
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