Buffalo ’66 is a 1998 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Vincent Gallo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Alison Bagnall from a story by Gallo.^[1] It stars Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Anjelica Huston. The film follows a man who is released from prison and subsequently kidnaps a young tap dancer, forces her to pretend to be his wife to impress his parents, and seeks revenge on the Buffalo Bills kicker he blames for losing a championship game.

The title refers to the Buffalo Bills, who had not won a championship since the 1965 American Football League Championship Game. The plot involves direct references to the Bills’ narrow loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, which was decided by a missed field goal. It was filmed in and around Gallo’s hometown of Buffalo, New York. The film uses English progressive rock bands such as King Crimson and Yes on its soundtrack. It was generally well-received, especially Ricci’s performance. Empire listed it as the 36th greatest independent film of all time.^[2] It grossed $2.4 million^[3] on a budget of $1.5 million.^[4]

Having just served five years in the Gowanda Correctional Facility, Billy Brown returns home to Buffalo, New York, and is preparing to meet with his parents, who do not know he has been in prison. He kidnaps Layla, a tap dancer, and forces her to pretend to be his wife to his parents. He gives her the name “Wendy Balsam”.

When they meet with Billy’s parents, Layla notices that the relationship between them is very dysfunctional, seeing Billy’s mother forgetting he has a chocolate allergy and his father behaving inappropriately toward her. She learns that Billy’s mother has never missed a Buffalo Bills game, except in 1966, on the day Billy was born. In a flashback, it is revealed that Billy once placed a reckless $10,000 bet on the Bills to win Super Bowl XXV; when they lost, the bookie forced Billy to clear his debt by confessing to a crime he did not commit, resulting in his time served in prison. Now, Billy seeks revenge on Scott Wood, the kicker who lost the game.^[b]

As they leave his parents’ house, Billy scolds Layla for telling an obvious lie to his father, and then decides to go bowling. There, Billy shows off his expertise at the sport, and Layla performs a tap dance routine to King Crimson’s “Moonchild”. The two use a photo booth to take photos “spanning time” which Billy intends to send to his parents once a year, but Billy becomes annoyed when Layla makes silly faces during the photos, in contrast to Billy’s straight face.

After bowling, Billy and Layla visit a diner, where Billy encounters the real Wendy Balsam, a woman he used to have a crush on in middle school, who is now happily in a relationship with another man. Billy leaves Layla alone in the diner after a brief argument, but regretting his outburst, returns and apologizes to her. Billy and Layla check into a motel, where Billy and Layla have a deep conversation, and eventually admit that they have fallen in love with each other, and they both go to sleep.

A few hours after midnight, Billy is about to leave to exact his revenge on Wood, when Layla awakens. Despite Layla’s doubts that he will return and proclamation of her love for him, he leaves, lying to her that he will return in a few minutes with hot chocolate for her. Shortly after leaving Layla at the motel, Billy calls his best friend Goon (who prefers to be called Rocky) and gives him the combination to his locker. Billy then hangs up and finds Scott Wood, now the owner of a topless bar. At the bar, he walks over to Wood’s table and shoots him before shooting himself. His parents are then shown sitting by his grave with his mother more interested in a Buffalo game on the radio than in her own son’s death. However, this is all shown to be in Billy’s head, and he leaves the bar without shooting Wood. Billy realizes that in Layla he has found someone who truly loves him. After making amends with Goon on a payphone, Billy elatedly buys Layla her hot chocolate and a heart-shaped cookie, and buys another for a man sitting nearby who tells him he has a girlfriend, before returning to Layla at the motel.