Originally published on June 9, 2022 on Letterboxd
*****
I liked this movie a lot. I feel like it’s getting harder for me to articulate my thoughts on films outside of them just being good or not, like I’m regressing back to where I was before I started seriously watching and reviewing movies, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s a problem with me and my brain, or maybe I’ve just been watching too many films recently and not balancing them with other things.
Life balance is sort of a big part of Buffalo ‘66, so I guess it’s providential that I brought it up. It’s a movie about a traumatized guy who gets out of prison and sets out on a deluded mission of vengeance, but kidnaps a nice, good hearted young girl along the way, and his life becomes unbalanced and then balanced again. There’s a stability that’s lost once he regains his freedom, and he goes kinda crazy, but the girl sorta anchors him and balances his life out in a way that a lot of us need. It’s funny to me that Vincent Gallo’s character in this, Billy Brown, is considered a “literally me” character by a lot of fans, ironically or not. I think there is a certain level of imbalanced mental health that is required for people to identify with a lot of the characters that they do, like Joker or Patrick Bateman, probably because a lot of them live unbalanced lives themselves being that they’re terminally online (not like I can really judge, though). But I guess that’s the point, people identify with a character not just because of who and how they are, but because of the issues both share.
An interesting aspect of this movie is that it’s big in online, conservative film circles not necessarily because Gallo is a staunch conservative, but his treatment of the girl in this movie is, ironically or not, relatable for a lot of online conservative guys because both they and Billy Brown have some serious resentment towards women, I think. Look, this isn’t to bash young, online conservative guys, since I’m one myself, and I doubt the majority of them would do anything that Brown does in here. But there is still resentment of women seemingly on both Gallo’s part and a certain group of of fans’ part. It’s funny because I don’t think young men are necessarily entirely wrong in this approach of avoiding/sort of resenting women. It’s like, women aren’t evil or anything, but there is a resentment and avoidance of the calamity that they can introduce to one’s life. Hating anyone is wrong, and you can’t really do that in good conscience since it’s not a very Christian or moral thing to do, and it lacks empathy. This is a very empathetic film, and the point of the film is that the main character changes by the end, so it’s almost a sort of message to a certain kind of guy that things can get better? I don’t know, maybe I’m just schizophrenically ranting, but I think there is definitely a large group of alienated and isolated guys online and in other areas that we kind of just ignore and make fun of? Like, Brown is a sort of caricature of the kind of online, sad, angry guy that a lot of people ignore and make fun of, but people empathize with Brown, often hypocritically I think. Seems like Gallo showing us a certain type of guy, acknowledging that being like this is a problem, and then trying to work through it.
The Brown character also fits another type of guy, that could also be the same as the first one I mentioned, I don’t know. But this one is also a lonely, alienated guy, only he’s not as much of a man in that he’s less assertive and forward-thinking, and he can never get lucky with a girl because he lacks the spontaneity and social ability. I know a lot of sheltered guys who live their lives according to these scripts that they have written in their heads, like, “Ooohh, why won’t she talk to me? Maybe if I ignore her she’ll approach me.” That’s kinda a bad example, but it’s this really frustrating, introverted type of behavior that puts a lot of the effort of starting a relationship on the girl because the guy is too whiny and incapable. I think that’s also sort of the appeal of the “literally me” character; guys who have their lives perfectly ordered and written out, and anytime they step outside of it to let as much of a wild card and risky factor as a girl in is a big step because it upsets the apple cart. I like movies like this, ones that acknowledge risks people take when trying to find love, especially ones who have been hurt or are really afraid of being hurt, like Gallo’s character, and Gallo himself, seem to be in this movie.
By the way, I mentioned the issues with some online conservative guys, but the opposite is equally bad. Online liberal guys are often super whiny and incapable of wooing a woman as well, because everything is an overreaction to something else and conservative guys are largely revolting against this dumb, liberal, “simp” mindset that permeates so many male circles online and in real life. A lot of people may ask themselves why the girl in this doesn’t really try to get away from Brown and why she sticks with him and eventually falls for him, and I think the answer is that he’s very masculine, albeit only in certain areas. The problem is that his masculinity is a little too wild and untamed, but when he grows and matures, he uses it to serve someone else instead of himself. This is why I hate terms like “toxic” or “fragile” masculinity. They are just disingenuous terms used by people to vilify good things and shame people instead of help them. “Oh, this guy is too much of a man? Oh, you don’t know how to handle guys being dudes? Just call them toxic and fragile!” Like, no, that’s not the answer and that’s now how God made us or how you should treat people. Women get off the hook all the time for all their shortcomings, which no one is even allowed to point out. You can’t say “toxic femininity,” and no one does, they just use the masculinity slur. I don’t think either are good-faith, since it’s a way of shaming people for being true to their natures. The problem is people need to learn how to use their natures as men and women to live virtuously instead of selfishly, and when you look at the problem from this angle, then there is no longer a need for those other terms. This is at the center of Buffalo ‘66. Brown, as crazy and wrong as he is, is very much a man in many areas, and there is something wild and intriguing to the woman about that kind of truly manly spirit. People always say that you need to treat girls like dirt to get them and that women don’t like nice guys, and both are true to an extent. Women don’t want simps and pets, they want manly men that they can count on. Brown is very much like a lot of guys in this. Embodying that idea but struggling to find his balance and spiritual footing, and that’s what the girl in this film sees and why she sticks with him, in my opinion.
I need to talk about Layla for a bit, because her presence in this movie is something else. Christina Ricci’s performance is really understated, but it’s awesome. People on here say this is a misogynistic movie or that her character is mistreated, but that seems more sexist than the movie to me because it assumes a lack of agency on her character’s part, of which she has much. Her presence in this film is angelic, otherworldly. I saw another review of this describe this film as “irresistible grace,” which is apt since Layla’s presence in Billy’s life feels divine, like she is the hand of God touching him when he’s at his lowest. You see her concern and care for him even when he does not at all deserve it, the feminine tenderheartedness that balances the masculine roughness. In fact, the whole film only heightens and emphasizes the positive traits associated with women while magnifying the negative ones associated with men, and how that female nature can balance and more complete the male one, so for anyone to call this misogynistic would just be dishonest. I mention the divine intervention part because this movie also sorta functions as a reflection on the nature of self-destructive behavior. Like a lot of people, especially guys, are incapable of being well-adjusted enough to live a fulfilling life and make themselves “happy” (as the world would define it), and so God, in His unfathomable benevolence, steps in and shows is the way to happiness some times. He saves us because we cannot save ourselves, spiritually or physically. God is our character development. The ending here is so touching, the idea that the truest sign of growth and maturity, of true character development, is doing something nice for someone else.
This movie as a whole is just a really sweet little love story, unorthodox in its writing and content and also because of Gallo’s minimalist style (this definitely feels like a 70s movie, thanks to the film grain and lived-in sets and city shots). I think The Brown Bunny provides a window into the sort of dissonance going on between appreciating something in film and then treating it differently in real life, like the guys who like this but then continue to reject women or love (honestly can’t blame them), and I think it’s because the difference is that the characters onscreen, while often seeming like “real people,” are also ideals, sorta like representations of How a Man Should Be and How a Woman Should Be. That’s not to say that all men and women should just be, like, super attractive and lifeless, but in terms of how they act and treat each other, and what society is asking of them. Obviously real people can’t and won’t act like the characters in this film, and that’s not even to say that they should (that would be weird), but I think things between men and women are really bad right now and we need to start asking more of each other and working towards solutions, because masculinity and femininity are beautiful things and both seem to really be crumbling and losing their way. That’s why it’s so beautiful to me when two people can transcend the issues of their age and be together, like their story is bigger to them than any current problems, and that’s the feeling I got watching this beautiful little movie. It’s funny because everything I just raged about are issues now, and this largely underrated rom-com from 1998 gave me more insight into today’s issues than anything coming out today. Proof that wrestling with abstract moral issues will always create more timeless art than wrestling with topical political or cultural ones, since the latter is just a version of the former.
Eye on Everything 