East Dulwich unofficial film club chilli night

Although Thursday night usually means chilli night, I got confused and had a tuna salad (slimline Badger) at 6pm this evening. This was upsetting enough on its own, but then I discovered that chilli night had been transformed into succulent steak night. At least I was able to participate in the other parts of the Thursday night ritual — drinking beer or wine and watching a DVD. Tonight’s flick was Buffalo ‘66, starring Christina Ricci and (director/co-writer) Vincent Gallo, which is apparently six years old, but new to all of us. A low-budget, “arthouse” (urghh) film, and well worth viewing if you get the chance; I’ll just be lazy and quote the précis from Channel 4:

The wolf-eyed Gallo stars in, writes, scores and directs a disturbing, yet often darkly funny romance-cum-dysfunctional family portrait that is largely drawn from his childhood memories. [Jesus! - Badger]

It all kicks off with ex-con Billy Brown (Gallo) leaving county jail. He’s told his parents he’s married and has a prestigious government job; but both are lies and so he ‘kidnaps’ tap-dancing teen Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his spouse. Back at the folks, nothing seems to have changed: mum (Houston) is still glued to the TV while dad (Gazzara) remains as lecherous as ever. Encounters with numerous other socially challenged characters in grotty settings (bowling alleys, bus stops, back streets) ensue…

Christina Ricci was great, despite the fact that her youthful looks sometimes make watching her playing such sultry roles feel like a guilty pleasure… Doesn’t seem that long ago she was the cute, cool little kid in the Addams Family, but now she’s, well, certainly grown up. The film’s supporting cast, including Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Rosanna Arquette, and Jan-Michael “Chopper” Vincent were also excellent.

Gallo’s someone I’ve not been able to make my mind up about yet; saw an arty documentary about him a while ago (and if memory serves me correctly, directed or written by him too) which was so sycophantic/pretentious that I was left with the feeling he could only be some sort of invented persona, an alter-ego invented as a joke that perhaps got out of hand. And recently he’s had some publicity with his supposed Republican leanings, which are guaranteed to garner him some column inches. Lord knows, but he was very good in this.

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