BUFFALO '66 (1998) *** I have no argument with anyone who insists that this is a historically great film. Technical stuff generally goes.not over my head but straight into my subconscious.and it turns out that one of the many ways in which Vincent Gallo is better than everyone else is in technical resourcefulness. Flash with a conscience. Not to say that I'd ever want anything to do with his character, or Christina Ricci either. I ain't no social worker. So this film is especially for grandstanding life-dilettante's like me. The characters are simply constructed, whole and real. If they're more real than people you might might on the street it's not because they're so developed. Gallo and Ricci would be brilliant even if the only thing they did right (it wasn't) is to reign themselves into characters so.maybe it looks like shallow at first, because there's not so much there. I guess maybe if you stare at anything long enough you start seeing molecules, and here if it's not redeeming qualities at least it's scar tissue. Even better, you begin to see what they might see in each other, drawn into the camera's focus on the two at the expense of almost everything else. You begin to see them so clearly, and so fully and completely, that it's just a little bit like looking down on them like God. Of course Nietzsche said that God died of a broken heart, but he never believed in Him, or if he did he didn't want to. It's hard to say, Nietzsche wasn't above lying for effect and neither is Gallo. Hell, Gallo's character will lie, effective or not. So the film is a construct within reprehensible, at least unsympathetic characters in the classical sense, can move you.you want to say from sympathy, but you wouldn't move so much without recognition. Great turn by Bruce Willis as the godfather, and Jan-Michael Vincent's (what the hell is he doing in this?) at least as perfect as the bowling alley manager. The single most telling moment of the film, though, may be when the unrecognizable (this makes her versatile, no?) Anjelica Huston tells the title tale. Tell a story like that, and that's all folks! Except for there's this spirit of grace that moves among us, and immunity's an over-rated concept. It's not about mistakes, man, it's about people. We're all incongruous, at least us of us.
back to Brilliant Observations on 2120 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!