Buffalo '66 was on HBO last night and a bunch of my film school classmates were tooting it's horn, so I took another look. I remember watching it on a plane once--yeah, sounds weird, huh. I believe it was on Virgin flying to England, when I first experienced the interactive TV menu on the back of the seat in front of me. Anyhow, I liked it then, but would not have thunk to recommend it.

This time around I found it quite moving. This guy has built such a bizzare wall around himself, fearful of being touched or loved, his only usefulness to society having taken the fall for another guy in prison. This character hovered perfectly between the Scorsce/Schraedor existential hero Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) and the Tarantino ironic hero Clarence (True Romance). He seems partially doomed but at the same time, a glimmer of dirty hope keeps popping up throughout the film. Great cast, Ricci made herself with this film, along with Ben Gazarra and Anjelica Houston playing his Buffalo Bills worshiping parents. Vincent Gallo directs, writes, stars, composes, shit, just about everything for the movie.

Also, love these films that capture locations...there's constant distanced traffic on big highways that reminded me of rest stops across America...I've never been to Buffalo, but you get a gloomy sense of the city.