Vincent Gallo, gaunt and pop eyed with a gaze of sexy hostile paranoia, has the look of a born sociopath - or a born movie star (or both.) In "Buffalo 66" which he wrote, directed and stars in, Gallo plays a young man named Billy Brown who emerges from a New York state prision looking like the psychotic cousin of Bruce Springsteen. Pale and goateed with greasy swept back hair. "Buffalo 66" is a grunge fable of regeneration that thrives on freedom. Billy, as his name suggest is still a kid, a stunted man-child coiled tight with impacted rage. Wondering into a tap-dance studio, he kidnaps the sweetly voluptuous, teenage Layla, and forces her to pretend to be his wife, all to convince his parents, a pair of hateful suburban louts that he is now a respectable person. The movie however doesn't just tweak these dysfunctional middle class goons. It satrizes the very pain they've caused. Gallo plays Billy as a wounded animal discovering his own soul. Gallo who has been an actor, a Calvin Klein model and a professional career bridge burner, already has the audacity and flair of a major filmmaker. What he does in "Buffalo 66" is turn the tables on punk disaffection. He gets an inspired performance from Christina Ricci who conveys a richer, dreamier insolence in one glance here than she does in all of "The opposite of sex." As Billy takes a plunge into his most self-annihilating fantasies, we have no idea if he'll come out the other side, and neither does he. In its eerie way, that's freedom.
Review of Buffalo '66
