Buffalo '66

viewed May 14, 2000 on video

For full information about this film, click here

I have no idea what inspired me to rent this video.  All I knew about it was that Christina Ricci starred in it -- reason enough I would say.  I claim it as her best performance that I've seen -- somehow the rawness of the lighting brings out her beauty more than glossier films like Sleepy Hollow or The Ice Storm.  She's clearly more overweight than in those later films, but that only adds to the improbability of her beauty.  There is a lot of improbability to her character: she basically agrees to being the hostage of a severely screwed up young ex-con who tries to pass her off as his wife when visiting his folks.  Somehow her character suspends the inherent preposterousness of this predicament. The film's Writer/producer/director/composer/actor Vincent Gallo is somehow able to cut through the thick-headed self-loathing histrionics of his story and notice that he has a jewel in his grubby hands.  As a result we are blessed with a completely unexpected and wonderful moment: Ricci tap-dancing in the middle of a bowling alley.  It's a cute scene in a wildly uneven film that rages between torturously repetitive and terminally cute.   

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