Buffaloed Movie Review (2019)

A crime comedy about an ambitious young woman navigating the cutthroat world of debt collection in hopes of building a better life, Buffaloed is energetic with great performances, but it never finds the depth or focus to make its story satisfying.

I first saw Zoey Deutch only recently in the movie Voicemails For Isabelle. She’s incredibly charming in the film (and it’s good, go watch it!), and I was surprised that I wasn’t familiar with her at all. When I looked through her credits, it seemed like she and I had somehow avoided each other, and I wanted to start watching some of her catalog. So I started here, with this movie.

Buffaloed is about Peg Dahl, a very smart young woman who learned to hustle from a very young age. With her father having died and living with her mom (a hairstylist who takes clients in their house) and her brother, Peg does everything she can with her finance and economics knowledge to make an extra buck. After being released from jail for selling counterfeit products, Peg approaches a debt collection company that has bought her debt and places a bet with the owner that, if she wins, her debt will disappear. She very quickly learns that debt collection is a great way to make money, and dives in, while, at the same time, becoming friendly with the attractive DA who argued the case that landed her in jail.

I was really disappointed in this film, and actually, after the first 15 minutes, I almost turned it off. But I have a rule for myself about finishing movies that I start, so I hung in there. It got marginally better, but only because of the actors.

Zoey Deutch and Judy Greer are the only reasons to watch this movie. Both have the charisma that you regularly find in them, and Greer, as Deutch’s sassy Buffalo-speaking mother, is a gift.

There is a style about Buffaloed that starts right from the first frames. Peg is a fast-talking Buffalo girl, and the Buffalo accent, “jagoff” calling, hard-edged stereotype lies heavily across the film. It should be funny. It should be clever. Peg is a fun character – but nothing gels.

I feel like there is a good movie in here somewhere, and that’s where my main issues are. I was bored by all the characters’ bad choices and attitudes toward them. The relationship between Peg and the DA is on the verge of believability, and just when I was buying into it, an event at the end totally lost me.

Buffaloed is a movie that wants to be cute, funny, and stylized, but it ends up being only the latter. That, combined with Deutch and Greer being the only reason I can give it as high a rating as I did, cause there really is nothing else to talk about.

Runtime: 95 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: NR

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? No

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 1.75/5 Stars

Available: To rent on Prime Video or may be available for free on other streaming platforms