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10/24/2000
Buffalo 66
This movie at first seems like a character study about a man trying to reconcile his past and trying to come to terms with his childhood. But beneath is something completely different.
It was written by, directed by and stars Vincent Gallo. Some of his films include The Perez Family, Truth or Consequences NM and Goodbye Lover.
Gallo stars as Billy Brown, a recently released convict. He is convinced by his mother to visit his parents house after spending 5 years in prison, without his parents knowledge. He wants his parents to believe that he is a success and is engaged to a beautiful woman.
Enter Christina Ricci. With no other options for bringing home a beautiful girlfriend, he decides to kidnap Christina Ricci from a dance class and forces her to pose as his fiancee. Almost immediately Billy is contrite and apologetic. He manages to convince Ricci that he will not hurt her and begs her to help him. Ricci seemlingly goes along with the plan and eventually falls for Billy.
Which brings us to the parents. Played by Angelica Huston and Ben Gazzara, Billy's parents are a case study in complete insanity. Jan Brown is a complete Buffalo Bill fanatic, adorning the house with Bills memorabilia and a Bills game constantly running on the TV. Jimmy Brown is a portal into the long lost days of the hardworking, TV Dinner eating Dad.
It is during dinner with the parents that we learn the circumstances of Billy's cursed existance. The day that Billy was born was the last time the Bills won a championship. It also happens to be the only Bills game that Jan Brown has ever missed. And she has never forgiven him for that.
To top it all off, Billy bet $10,000 that he didn't have on the Bills to beat to the Giants in the Super Bowl. Of course, the Bills lose (and lost) the Super Bowl when the Bills' kicker misses a field goal as time runs out. At Billy's parents house, we learn that Billy plans to kill the kicker who missed the field goal for the Bills.
I won't go into much detail about the rest of the movie. There are solid co-starring roles for Mickey Rourke, Jan Michael Vincent and Rosanna Arquette. Gallo has created a strangely compelling love story inside an even stranger deeply laid plot.
I stated at the beginning about how this movie is not really about what it seems. What is always lurking underneath is a general feeling among Buffalo residents of incompleteness and of inferiority to other cities, a longing best represented by the Bills inability to win the Super Bowl. In many ways, the character of Jan Brown is a direct representation of Gallo's real life mom.
If you ever watch an NFL Films show on the Bills, you can see Gallo's mom in the front row. Gallo shot the dinner scene with his parents in his real life parents' house. Her house is a shrine to the Buffalo Bills. The only game she's missed in the Bills existence was when her husband had heart bypass surgery.
If you've ever met someone from Buffalo, you've seen the fervor. For some reason, the Buffalo Bills bring out more passion from their hometown than any sports team in the US. Losing 4 straight Super Bowls has only added to the passion the Bills' fans have to win a Super Bowl, not only for the fans sake but to validate the status of the city of Buffalo as well.
That is a lot of what this film is about. Gallo's character represents all of Buffalo, a man with good qualities and good intentions but for one reason or another just hasn't made the best of his life. But he can see the light at the end of the tunnel and knows things will be getting better.
CDWH |
