| Buffalo '66 | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Vincent Gallo |
| Produced by | Chris Hanley |
| Screenplay by | Vincent Gallo Alison Bagnall |
| Story by | Vincent Gallo |
| Starring | Vincent Gallo Christina Ricci Anjelica Huston Ben Gazzara |
| Music by | Vincent Gallo |
| Cinematography | Lance Acord |
| Editing by | Curtiss Clayton |
| Studio | Cinépix Film Properties Muse Productions Lionsgate |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release date(s) | June 26, 1998 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,375,097[1] |
Buffalo ’66 is a 1998 comedy-drama film that is writer/director Vincent Gallo's semi-autobiographical full-length motion picture debut. Gallo and Christina Ricci star in the lead roles and the supporting cast includes Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Ben Gazzara, and Anjelica Huston. Gallo also composed and performed much of the music for the film.
Empire listed it as the 36th greatest independent film ever made.[2] It was filmed in and around Gallo's native Buffalo, New York.
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Having just served five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) kidnaps a young tap dancer named Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression.
The subplot of Billy seeking revenge on the man indirectly responsible for his imprisonment, Scott Wood, is a reference to a former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in 1991.[3]
Gallo and Ricci reportedly did not get along on the set. He called her a "puppet" who did what she was told.[4] Ricci vowed to never work with Gallo again.[5] She also resented the comments he made about her weight three or four years after filming.[6]
Buffalo '66 received mostly positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 78% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 40 reviews, achieving a "Certified Fresh" classification, with an average rating of 7/10.[7] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 68, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[8]