Buffaloed (2019) Movie Review
I have only seen one other movie from director Tanya Wexler and it was Hysteria (2011), a thoroughly delightful movie about the invention of the vibrator. Wexler caught my attention all those years ago, so her first foray back into directing with Buffaloed was on my must watch list.
First and foremost Buffaloed was hilarious. Peg Dahl (Zoey Deutch) is a bit of a con artist. She’s obsessed with money and gets arrested and put in jail for a few years for creating fake Buffalo Bills tickets and selling them to naïve fans as they enter the stadium. After her stint in jail she becomes sucked into the world of debt collection. She begins working for Wizz (Jai Courtney) and learns the tricks of the trade. She quickly rises to the top of the leaderboard for her ability to rack up debt collections like a seasoned veteran.
When Wizz stiffs her and doesn’t pay out like he should, she becomes fed up and decides to strike out on her own. She assembles a team of misfits including her prison enemy, Backer (Lorrie Odom), former prostitutes, and a man selling Bibles. They make up her debt collection team and use their unique skills to become pretty darn good at it. Peg begins to steal notes from Wizz and in the cut throat business of debt collecting they get into an all out turf war. Meanwhile Peg is juggling a relationship with Graham (Jermaine Fowler), the prosecutor who put her in jail for her ticket scam. She is also navigating a taut relationship with her mother Kathy (Judy Greer) who is saddled with debt from Peg’s alcoholic, gambling father.
Buffaloed is at its best when Wexler lets Deutch run wild. Deutch makes Peg larger than life. She is maniacally obsessed with making money and has an ego the size of Texas. She’s also incredibly smart and thrifty, always finding a way to make things work even if it’s not always legal. It’s helpful to think of Buffaloed as a poorer version of the Wolf of Wall Street. Peg isn’t making millions but she is much like Jordan Belfort in personality and characteristics. They are both salespeople at heart, extremely good at making others do things they probably shouldn’t. I admired Peg for much of the movie for her iron will and her focus on succeeding. Her greatest strength of course winds up being one of her downfalls, but I won’t spoil the ending for you here.
There are a lot of important topics at the heart of Buffaloed. The main one being the crushing debt experienced by most Americans and the mostly unregulated world of debt collection. It’s like the Wild West out there and Wexler captures it in a raw and unfiltered way. But Buffaloed also highlights other issues like the prison system and the costs associated with being sent to jail as well as class and how the system is rigged for those who already have money. The old saying, “You have to have money to make money” rings particularly true here and you see what Peg resorts to in her attempts to fund her own college education.
Overall Buffaloed was highly entertaining. Wexler doesn’t take many risks here but luckily the story does most of the work so she didn’t really need to. On top of the awesome story, Deutch’s stellar performance makes the movie and it was refreshing to see her kick some ass. Don’t miss this one ya jagoff!
Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You liked Jordan in Wolf of Wall Street
2. You like movies about money
3. You want to see Zoey Deutch steal the dang show
