The Many Meanings of Buffaloed
There are many little things to like about Brian Sacca’s screenplay and Tanya Wexler’s quirky rendition of Buffaloed. There is also one gigantic, glaringly obnoxious in her undeniable charm, centerpiece to like in the form of Zoey Deutch. Deutch nailed her insufferably girly survivor in the sequel to Zombieland and now with the release of Buffaloed she’s followed up with a double tap of her own. Once again playing an unlikable character, Deutch seems to effortlessly manipulate us into not just liking her, but loving her.
It is fitting that Deutch is so good at manipulating her audience as this time out she plays Peg Dahl, the queen of manipulators. One of the most surprising things about Buffaloed is how Wexler, Sacca and Deutch conspire to make this self-involved, too often cruel Peg as lovable as she is. As it was with Zombieland: Double Tap so it is with Buffaloed, the wrong casting could have been disastrous. Deutch has a way of burying subtle glances and facial tics underneath her gregariousness that indicate an actual real person.
A person who does care about other people even if it seems otherwise. A real person with real dreams and while fortune may favor the bold, prosperity certainly favors the prepared. Peg is bold but not even barely prepared for the consequences of her own boldness. In short, she’s a mess. An insufferable but lovable mess.
The other major character beside Peg, is the City of Buffalo, New York itself. There are, of course, a number of people calling a number of people “jag-off” and plenty of “Go Bill’s” as well. However, as it so happens, Buffalo also is the home to an uncommonly high number of collection agencies. This fact plays heavily into the plot of Buffaloed. Much of the story, for better or for worse, revolves around collection agencies.
We learn early on in a flashback that Peg does not like living in Buffalo at all. When we meet her as a young adult the song remains the same but this time she has a plan. She intends to go to an ivy league school and escape her trap. She demands her mother Kathy – the always likable and almost always underused Judy Greer – give her money to help her get into college. Her long patient and loving brother JJ (Noah Reid), offers to help but Kathy is firm, they can’t afford that kind of money.
When Peg discovers she was accepted to an ivy league school the immediate elation at such a thing only too soon fades into the quick sand of reality. Scholarships and loans seem unlikely, but Peg has a plan. She counterfeits tickets to the Bill’s games in order to raise money for her tuition. Bold move, but Peg was no where near prepared for the consequences.
Sacca salts and peppers his tale with quirky members of the community, as in bemused cops more agitated at the desecration of the institution that is the Bill’s than the crime itself. Or in a courtroom where Peg’s defense lawyer disagrees so much with the judge over which buffalo wings cafe is better he attacks the judge physically. Not all the over the top jokes work and the judge jumping out of his chair and over to meet his attacker falls a bit flat.
Still, these quirky Buffaleno’s can be pretty charming themselves and just annoying enough to give Peg’s personality some context. As much as she may hate this town, she is very much a product of it and just like the Bill’s (who hold the record for consecutive appearances to the Superbowl and consecutive losses for all four), she keeps trying for that big brass ring. “Go Bills.”
After what should have been probation for Peg but because of her attorney wound up being forty months in prison, it isn’t long before she’s at it again. Her family hounded by calls from collection agencies, Peg finally takes the bull by the horns and answers one of these calls. Here she discovers she’s being pitched by a guy named Sal (Sacco) who doesn’t know he’s a salesman. Peg recognizes the vacuum and is soon negotiating herself a job, promising Wiz (Jai Courtney), the boss of this agency to be his best closer.
Jai Courtney has never been much of an actor but has thankfully become a better one as time has gone by. He’s certainly smart enough to know he can’t compare to Deutch’s artistry and wisely accepts his supportive role and underneath his contempt for Peg let shine a genuine affection for her. It’s a nice subtly from an actor not known for that. While Peg winds up delivering on her promise, Wiz does not, only giving her a portion of what she was expecting.
She resolves to start her own collection agency and put Wiz out of business. She negotiates with one of the primary holders of “paper,” meaning the debtors. She offers three times what Wiz is paying in order to secure enough leads to start her own agency. She does need help, so she enlists a collection of quirky characters to become her sales force. This is the weakest part of Sacco’s script and Wexler seems to know it, shooting it briskly as if it were a montage with a bit of dialogue.
Throughout this, Peg has been every so gradually developing a relationship with Graham, the assistant DA who prosecuted her in the beginning. While Graham easily falls for the physical attractiveness of Peg, and after falling he tries to push away. He recognizes that she is trouble and the kind of trouble that could only make him look bad. Graham also pretends to be a law and order kind of guy but we learn soon enough it is as much pretentious as it is earnest.
She has enlisted two of the people she met while in prison; Luisa Struss and Lorrie Odom. Struss as Frances, was in prison for prostitution and became friends with Peg. Odom as Backer was also in prison but was the head of the contraband cartel who beat the crap out of Peg for competing. Paulyne Wei, Raymond Ablack and James M. Connor round out the crew. Each of them bringing their unique personality’s to the job of collections.
Struss seduces debtors into paying, and James M. Connor walked into the shop selling bibles and wound up using those skills to collect debt. It’s not entirely implausible that a hooker could seduce delinquent debtors into paying their bills, and it’s entirely plausible a con-man selling bibles could excel at this job too. The problem is it’s not entirely clear whether Clip (Connor) is a conman or a true believer in the bible as product. He seems to lean to the latter albeit a true believer who not only forgives the occasional “fuck yeah’s” but actually applauds them.
At a brief 95 minutes the script could have used more exploration of these characters and who they actually are other than props. People who are things that Peg manipulates. We know that she cares about these people. We know this because we know some of things Peg has gone through and is going through in order to run a straight agency that pays well for all. Because they don’t know it is somewhat inexplicable why they all stick with her.
Even when they’ve had enough and start to walk away, with barely an assurance by Peg they stick around. It is Zoey Deutch who is ultimately given these assurances, not just to the actors around her but to us as her audience. With practically every scene she assures us it is worth our time to stick around for the ending of this film. It’s a predictable ending but quirky enough to make satisfying enough to have spent these 95 minutes with Zoey Deutch.