re-watched both of gallo's films
and
Both are 8/10's. BUFFALO '66 is more easy-to-please-the-indie-film-audience, but even it is a bit weird, disjointed, and seems like a mashup of Jon Jost/Godardian styles with a very Americanized storyline that doesn't reach for anything too grand and can even be a bit goofy in its characertization and plot -- a frustrating film, but ultimately, a damn good one, especially for a first-time director -- and it looks damn good, to boot. Most of the best ideas are reused from better films, but it's worth seeing for the first 5 minutes alone (the shots of the snow and seagulls). Also, gotta love any film with bowling!
As for Brown Bunny, I'm sure I'm in the minority who prefers it to Buffalo, but not by much (again, both 8's). Rarely do I see a film so haunting, so uncaring about the audience watching it -- it felt like a private journal of events more than a "movie" and it doesn't progress like a "movie" at all (granted, Buffalo doesn't really, either, in any conventional sense -- but it still has a pretty straightforward plot). This film is positively
ghostly; "hauntingly beautiful" and, other times, just beautiful. A good 40 minutes of the film is just a guy driving. But man, those scenes were amazing! I was so engaged.. it was like I was traveling to somewhere new, where I'd never been. I was never bored once. And Gallo isn't as in-your-face and assholeish as in Buffalo, so it makes the film a lot easier to get through. A brilliantly minimal, misunderstood, epic. Fucking great! Too bad most people just watched it for the unsexiest blowjob ever.