Buffaloed
Written By: Margaux Fortier
The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival had an incredible mix of accomplishments in film and television. A wide range of themes and stories came together to make a full program of diversity and discovery.
Buffaloed, an independent film directed by Tanya Wexler, focuses on the offbeat story of a woman native to Buffalo, NY, who has big plans in a small place. Zoey Deutch plays Peg Dahl, a woman in her 20s always looking for her next hustle. From a young age, she has been trying to turn a profit by cooking up scams that swindle unsuspecting passersby out of their money. Small profits start to add up as she gets older and her business plans become more complicated to support herself and her family. These skills lead her to the unusual and unsavory profession of debt collecting.
How far would any of us go to make money?
Even though a major part of Peg’s life has been trying to make an extra few dollars to get out of Buffalo, her ambition and morality is put to the test by her new gig in the debt collecting world. Her boss, played by Jai Courtney, has a mafia-esque way of doing business and though Peg is good at what she does, she’s risking getting too far into it to ever get out.
Zoey Deutch is hilarious and unapologetic as Peg. Peg’s crass outlook on life in Buffalo, NY, mixed with her ambition and hustle creates an unforgettable character that baffles the audience with what she will do next. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Lea Thompson, Zoey Deutch is bringing heart and relatability to her roles and developing a name for herself within the world of Hollywood.
Judy Greer, playing Peg’s mother, is trying her best to keep her family afloat as a working class mother running a hair business out of her home. She wants the best for her family, even though things seem to be stacked against them from the start. Judy Greer brings an anchoring of morality to the story while also an edge that adds to the humor of the comedy.
Director Tanya Wexler is no stranger to the environment of strong and captivating storytelling. Her vision translates well to the backdrop of Buffalo, NY, and the flow of each act resonates with very natural conversation and reaction between characters. Buffaloed incorporates Wexler’s ideas into a fresh and funny on screen experience that may take audiences by surprise or at least on a wild ride.
Buffaloed may be accomplishing an element of female storytelling that is rarely seen. It’s a brash leading lady with immoral intentions that you root for until the end. Peg is charismatic in her swindling and sympathetic at her breaking point. This independent movie proves that it is not a high budget that leads to high performance and the cast embodies this in every scene. It’s entertaining and mesmerizing and matters so much to the world of women in media today.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3614913/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8647310/
