‘Buffaloed’ starring Zoey Deutch is a fast-paced comedy that takes place in and around Buffalo. If you’ve been meaning to see it, we answer the burning question: get out to theaters or meh, just wait until it’s on Netflix?

Debt Collector Extraordinaire

Buffaloed (directed by Tanya Wexler) tells the story of Peg Dahl (played by Zoey Deutch), who’s a fast-talking Buffalonian continually thinking of get-rich-quick schemes so she can make a fast buck. After a stint in jail leaves Peg in debt—due to one of her schemes going awry—she is pressured to get a job by her mother (played by Judy Greer) and her brother (played by Noah Reid). She becomes a debt collector, working under the misogynistic Wizz (played by Jai Courtney), who rules the collection business around the city with an iron fist. When Peg realizes she has a knack for debt collecting, she ditches Wizz and assembles her own motley crew of collectors, and the sparks begin to fly.

The movie feels like a cartoon more than a film, with human-to-human stakes and emotions driving it. Our whip-smart plucky protagonist Peg isn’t so much a character, as an ever-processing computer, always ready with a retort and answer close at hand. She wants to be out of debt and will do so by any means necessary, but she comes off as self-centered and manipulative for 85% of the movie. Even though she means well (or so I’m told by the film), It’s tough to get behind her by the time the credits roll, because the character you see in the beginning is the character you see in the end. There is no real arc; there’s just Peg doing Peg. The brother and the mother are bit players, but the majority of warmth and care comes from them. Nothing scene-stealing but only some of that good old sappy stuff that tugs at your heartstrings at critical moments throughout the movie, like “I love you more than the moon, the sun, and the stars”. They’re mostly the warmth that cuts through Peg’s madcap quest to get out of debt. Wizz is just a two-dimensional bad guy because the film needs an antagonist. No further real motivations other than “I run all this, and I won’t let a lady take it away”.

How much Buffalo is too much Buffalo?

The film is supposed to take place in Buffalo. Did you know that? Because if the title and the opening shots didn’t give it away, the movie says ‘Buffalo’ or ‘Bills’ to the point of nausea. I’m sure all parties involved wanted to make a fun, respectful ode to the city, but when a lawyer and a judge are about to go to blows over the best wing spot in town, I had to step back and say to myself “what?” The film doesn’t entirely present a heightened reality. Other than Peg’s manic, seemingly caffeine-induced personality, everything else is played relatively straight. Which leaves scenes like this (although admittedly few) nonetheless jarring, and take the film in this absurd direction that is meant to be funny, but comes off as cringe-inducing.

The picture is undoubtedly Peg’s story, and it feels like Peg is almost too big of a character in her own story. Screaming, plotting and running from one encounter to the next like a hurricane of self-importance, drowning out anything in her way. The film tries to comment about how terrible debt collecting agencies are and how sleazy the whole process is while being a meditation on capitalism, and it’s novel that the film takes time out to explain in a digestible manner (at least partially) how the debt collecting process works. Still, it’s tough to care about any of it. When all you can see, or think of, is Peg because she’s always in your face. 

As a result, every character doesn’t feel like a person, but a cut-out inserted to fill their role in the film. Take Wizz, for example, he’s terrible, but why you ask? Because he’s… terrible! And not in an all-out foil to Pegs bombastic personality, but in a more subtle, generic, this guy is trash type of way. He makes uncomfortable advances, make crude jokes and slicks his hair back, but he comes off more like a clown with gel in his hair than a legitimate threat.

Perhaps the greatest casualty of the two-dimensional characters is Graham (played by Jermaine Fowler) Pegs lawyer to be love interest. The romance is non-existent. Graham is just a stepping-stool to achieve her goal, and Graham is such a non-starter of a character, he was dumped in the back end of the review.

The Verdict: Theatre or Netflix?

What Zoey Deutch does in Buffaloed is admittedly impressive. She convincingly sets many of the scenes ablaze and creates an interesting character. Even five hours after seeing the film, I’m still not quite sure if I’d like to hang out with Peg, or risk life and limb in the process of getting away from her. Ultimately I think I’d probably frantically cross the street without looking at the traffic light if I so much as sensed she was heading in my direction.

So what is the verdict? If it seems that I’m displeased with Buffaloed, that’s because I am – the film fell short of my expectations in a number of ways. But I’m still glad I went to the North Park Theatre to support it. Yet if someone asked me “Is this the big-screen movie that Buffalo deserves?”, I would have to step back, collect my thoughts, then look that person in the eye and say, “As a theatre experience no. But as a movie you randomly find on Netflix… maybe.”