We all have our cultural blind spots. Some of us have never seen “Citizen Kane,” while others just learned who Lil Nas X is. And some of us do not understand the comedic minutiae of life in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo native Brian Sacca is not a member of the latter group, something he makes immediately and abundantly apparent on every page of his first feature-length screenplay, “Buffaloed.” The result, directed by Tanya Wexler, is amusing. Until it’s not.
“Buffaloed” centers on Peggy “Peg” Dahl (Zoey Deutch, also producing), a spunky hustler with anger issues who, hell-bent on getting her family out of debt, becomes a debt collector herself. Convinced she can master collection without becoming a crook like her local competitors, Peg deceives everyone – her mother (Judy Greer), her brother (Noah Reid), her biggest adversary (Jai Courtney), and the hot lawyer who put her in prison (Jermaine Fowler) – to get what she wants. It’s zany! It’s energetic! It’s…exhausting.
This seems due to the script rather than the cast. Deutch, who proved more than game for such a quirky-yet-amoral role in 2017’s indie crime comedy “Flower,” does the best she can with what’s given. In the first scene, she sprints across Buffalo, screams, and fires a gold handgun into the air. It’s a wonderful moment, the kind indicative of her range as an actress. She has a face that can turn from doe-eyed to demented on a dime. But this script, which suffers from an overabundance of plotting, relies mainly on her cunning and lots (lots) of Buffalo-specific humor. If you’re not wowed by jokes about wing joints and the word “jag-off,” Deutch can only get you so far.
Sacca’s script is an exercise in poor plotting. Peg is so amoral and her life so overstuffed that, by the start of the third act, there are practically no stakes left. It stands to reason that her family would want nothing to do with her, ditto her would-be boyfriend – and plot points like that would be fine, if she wasn’t also constantly bested by her debt collector foes. Peg is neither so competent that her egregious frauds are for the best nor so unlikeable as to constantly root against. She wrongs everyone around her and still constantly loses. Comedy!
Everything else about this film is adequate-bordering-on-irritating. Its anti-debt-collection punditry is novel, if extremely heavy-handed. Deutch’s go-go dancer hair and makeup are befuddling, but the too-large suits she wears are charming. Judy Greer is there, but she’s not given anything to do. Like its manipulative protagonist, “Buffaloed” giveth and “Buffaloed” taketh away.
Mostly, “Buffaloed” taketh away 95 minutes of your life. Unless jokes about ambrosia salad are apt to put you in stitches, feel free to dodge the call when this one comes for your money. [D]