Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11510 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.com
Writer-director-composer Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci star in this quirky and deliberately grimy little movie. Gallo plays Billy Brown, recently released from prison and unable to find so much as a decent bathroom in his cold hometown. Billy's parents are unaware that he's been locked up; in a pathetic attempt to impress them with how successful he's become, he hits on the novel plan of kidnapping young dance student Layla (Ricci) and forcing her to play the role of his wife. Billy's distant--to say the least--parents are played to the hilt by Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara, Huston in particular bringing a demented glee to her role as Billy's football-obsessed mother. As the movie unfolds, we learn more about Billy's tormented childhood and unfortunate tendency to bet on the Bills in the Super Bowl. Gallo boldly throws himself into the task of playing a complete sleazebag, and Ricci does lovely standout work as the one ray of hope in the grinding darkness of Billy's life. This odd little love story is just the thing to make you feel better about your own relationship--especially if you're not in one. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

VHS tape seems better than the DVD
The VHS tape is way better! The VHS has the trailer before the film starts, and you're fully missing out if you haven't seen it, it has masterful editing and a devastating cut of that YES song "Heart of the Sunrise". But it's not on the dvd! The dvd has NO special features. I'm not impressed by the letterboxing either...kinda seems ham-fisted, like the dude who did it does that job 8 hours a day and doesn't care about what he's working on. I was getting the feeling the image was clipped/cropped instead of re-sized. I do not own the VHS (rented) so I can't compare. If I would have known the dvd was going to be this lousy I just would've bought the VHS tape version. The colors & clarity are nice though, and it has good subtitles.

Wicked Black Humor!!!
"30 years I haven't missed a game." says Billys mother. Buffalo has just missed a field goal on TV. "They haven't won the championships since 1966, and I missed that game 'cause that's the day I had Billy.."

Story goes like this. Billy went to prison. The movie starts with him just getting out. Why was he in prison, you may ask.. Well, Billy bet $10,000 one year that the Buffalo Bills would win the superbowl, which he loses of course. The gangster bookie (Mickey Rourke) tells Billy that instead of doing really bad to things to him for not being able to pay off his huge bet, he can take the fall for another guy in relation to some crime concerning one of the bookie's friends.

There's something pretty weird about this movie that had me laughing over the most horrible things.. Billy's family life for one.. Christina Ricci's story to his parents about how she and he first met .. Billy being an FBI agent and she a lowly typist (all the while, his father rolling his eyes and his mother glued to the Bills game on TV).

Billy's a considerate son to his parents, and an excellent bowler. Christina Ricci, his kidnapped girlfriend, is a tap dancer and as patient as any kidnapping victim could be. The bleak shots of a dreary Buffalo (contrasting nicely with Billy's red platform shoes and Ricci's low-cut baby blue tu-tu) are a nice backdrop to the story.

Vincent Gallo, who I've never seen before, is fantastic as Billy. His performance is so wrought with angst, passion and conflict, it's hard to beleive the movie was so hilarious! Christina Ricci is a perfect complement as "Wendy Balsam", also the name of the grade school girl Billy had a crush on, and who makes a short appearance in the film (Rosanne Arquette). This is a real character driven movie, though a lot of creative camera work, and a mad music track - 70's Yes in the final strip club scenes??!! - also help bring this wicked, yet poigniant love story to life.

Interesting story, kinda reminds me of A catcher in the rye
This is an interesting tail of a guy, billy brown, that has been in jail for 5 years, and somehow managed to hide it from his parents. He now finds himself released and returning home to visit the parent. He's told them hes making great money, and he has a wife. Now, how does he find a wife in the matter of a few minutes...oh yeah, kidnap one (christina ricci). Soon we find out that Billy has grown up in a unique household, and also that he went to jail under unique circumstances. Finally, how does he reconcile his mind from what he has obsessed about for 5 years with what actually is occuring today. A decent story, and some good performances, but now that I really objectivly look at it, so much like a film version of a catcher in the rye, but modified a bit, but essentially the same. Substitute Christina ricci's character for Holden's sister, and Billy being Holden Caufield, and walla, a catcher in the rye. Check it out anyway.