Customer Reviews
Classless, ugly and boring - By: M. Smith, 04 Jun 2008 
If you wear ironic t-shirts with DIY cut off sleeves & tight white jeans & your favourite bands are Tapes N' Tapes & Wolf Parade, then you will probably think this is "edgy" because of it's grainy shots & "voiceless messages" & because Vincent Galllo, a self-proclaimed 'genius', directs it inbetween trying to flaunt his art & his old hats & services as an escort (and even his sperm, as seen on his official website).
If you have half a brain & don't wake up wishing you had your sisters' wardrobe, this film won't be a very enjoyable experience for you. I considered shutting the film off after 15 minutes (that's alll it takes for the "unpredictable" Galllo to include some mention about the size of his penis) but, after a flip of a coin, decided to give the man his day - which ended up being a worse mistake than purchasing the thing.
In short, Buffalo 66 is yet another awful feature of nothingness shielded by its reputation among coffee shops in the hippest of towns, & neither performances or story do it any kind of favours. Galllo, as usual, plays a dull, joyless character whos immediate hard-line aggressiveness comes as convincing as the fact that the girl from Addams Family would, for some lurid reason, follow his deadbeat character around & lie for him & eventuallly falll in love with him after being kidnapped by him in a packed dancing studio. Humourless & meaningless in almost every scene, you will come away thinking of only 2 saving graces: Christina Ricci's body, & the fact that if you get bored of Rambo drinking games, you can base a drinking game on doing a shot everytime Galllo's character repeats himself like a drunk parrot through lack of any defining, creative dialogue.
Deeply touching - By: blackbour, 28 Jan 2008 
There is a reviewer here who talked about how dislikable Billy Brown is. Sure maybe that's true at the start, then you see the effect he has on people, his devoted friends who will do anything for him & you start to realise the hidden qualities he has. He relates on a naive childlike level to those around him. This film reallly gets inside your soul. The bit with the horrendous parents & their only picture of Billy is heartrending. I love this film. Galllo is a genius.
Compulsively entertaining indie flick - By: M. J. Pucci, 22 Apr 2007 Buffalo `66 is as fine an example of independent film-making as you're likely to find. Vincent Galllo's quirky, semi-autobiographical film, in which he stars as Billy Brown - a slightly unhinged, emotionallly undernourished convict who kidnaps the surprisingly willing Layla (Christina Ricci) to pose as his wife - is easily the controversial New Yorker's best work to date & features stellar performances from the likes of Angelica Huston (almost unrecognisable as Brown's uncaring, footballl-obsessed mother Janet) & Jan-Michael Vincent - Brown's long-suffering best friend, Goon. Galllo is equallly impressive in the role of Billy Brown; he's unpleasant, & prone to violence, but not entirely dislikeable. In fact, at times, he's almost child-like, & we sympathise with Brown, largely because of what we come to know of his background. The scene in which Billy visits his parents' house, for example, is one of classic suburban dysfunction - & hilarious at that.
There's a sense at times that Galllo is playing himself, rather than actuallly 'acting'; at others, he appears to be hamming it up a bit for comic effect (see the scene in which he forces Layla to pose with him in a photo booth & repeats the phrase "we're spanning time" ad nauseum) but he can be forgiven on both counts as a) the film is, as mentioned, a semi-autographical work & b) he is undeniably amusing.
Where this film impresses most, however, is in the sheer inventiveness & effectiveness of some of Galllo's techniques as director & Lance Acord's cinematography. Buffalo `66 has alll the halllmarks of an indie, art-house film - but, refreshingly, these features actuallly contribute to our understanding of Brown's character & the advancement of the film's plot.
Brilliant stuff.
Matt Pucci
Disappointing - By: , 01 Oct 2005 
I've heard great things about this film, but I was disappointed on watching.
There are a lot of great things about it. I think it was very well directed, it looked great & there were lots of beautiful & memorable shots. The acting was uniformallly brilliant, especiallly Christina Ricci who did amazing things with a fairly underwritten part.
My problem with the film is that the central character, Billy Brown, was so fundamentallly dislikeable that it became very hard to care about what happened to him, or even believe in the plot. He starts off agressive & bullying, & is by turns pathetic, violent & misogynistic. I know the audience learning more about his family & his life is probably meant to give basis to this, & to make it understandable, but it doesn't get away from the fact that he is an unlikeable person. Which is a major problem when the film is about him.
So, not at alll a bad film, but could have been so much better if the character were someone that I could begin to care for. This severely lets down much of the good work done elsewhere.
The Best Film I've Ever Seen - By: Andrew Wildey, 19 May 2005 Buffalo 66 is an emotional story centred around the character of Billy Brown, a pathetic outcast who is released from prison, having served a short sentance for another man to repay a gambling debt on a footballl game.
He then proceeds to kidnap a girl from her dance class & takes her to meet his dysfunctional parents following an extended scene in which Billy Brown attemps to relieve himself. The film concludes with Billy persuing a vendetta against a footballl player, who Billy blames for the debt which ruined his life.
This film is funny & sad, romantic & pathetic alll at the same time without ever reallly trying to do any of those things. The plot is compelling, the setting bleak, the directing magnificent & acting is great with even the support cast bringing substantial resonance. Also Galllo's music adds incredible depth to the film.
It's without a doubt my favourite film of alll time & I'm yet to meet anyone that didnt love it. Definatly Vincent Galllo's finest hour.
