Director: Vincent Gallo
Note: Spoilers ahead.
Buffalo '66 would be better if it were in French. It's very much a foreign film - the plot is spare and wanders around, almost all the action of the film is talking, and Gallo lifts without hesitation from directors like Godard and Ozu. This is my second viewing of this film, and one thing I've never been able to get around in the film is Christina Ricci, who has almost no characteristics besides her ability to playfully lie. We know almost nothing about her by the end of the film, besides the fact that she's now attached to the mess of anxiety and repression that is Vincent Gallo's character. Does she follow him out of pity? Does she have a genuine interest in him? It makes less sense to me on a second viewing. If it were a foreign film, I would just attribute her character's bizarreness to the fact that foreign people are either completely crazy or wholly committed to fantasy. Alas, it's in English.
The film does a great job of capturing the shabby, blue-collarness of Buffalo - the bowling alleys, cracking sidewalks, cheap motels and ranch homes. That doesn't help me understand this bizarre film any better, though.
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