I like Zoey and she does a decent job throughout, but the storyline is not that compelling and falls apart sometime in the middle. Reasonable enjoyable for the first act or two. Scene where they all stop to watch a play in the game is excellent. Easily skipable movie.
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nightringer-7684024 February 2020I saw a lot of complains and critics about his film, comparing it to Wolves of Walls Street, etc. The way I see it, Buffaloed is enjoyable, Zoey Deutch has the charms and naughtiness playing con artist. Buffaloed delivers entertainment with middle class flare and street wise cracks. Better than what I have expected. As for the comparison, it's leaning towards Legally Blond in Debt Collecting.
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'Buffaloed' is basically 'The Wolf of Wall Street' minus everything that made that movie great. Now that might sound harsh, so it is important to remember that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was one of the finest movies made last decade. Almost any film that finds itself being compared to it is going to come up well short. That being said, this film did have some noticeable flaws that desperately needed to be addressed.
I'm a big fan of Zoey Deutch. In fact she was probably the only thing that actually got me over the line towards seeing this movie. I've liked her in pretty everything she's been in. The problem is that she isn't quite a strong enough actress yet to carry a film all by herself. She did an adequate job in 'Before I Fall' but that also had a really strong story for her to fall back on and didn't require her acting to be at its absolute peak. 'Buffaloed' on the other did require that. She is actually given a lot to work with here. The script lets her roam free and gives her some incredibly energetic dialogue to utilise. They were basically trying to make her the female version of Jordan Belfort and match Leonardo DiCaprio's performance. A dream role for a lot of actresses, but certainly not an easy one to nail.
The film also has a lot of trouble deciding exactly what genre it wanted to fall into. Some scenes feel like they are trying to be an out and out comedy, while others feel like it is trying to take itself very seriously. The problem is that neither of these are done very well. I don't think I laughed once through the run time, but I also never took the story seriously enough to actually care about what was going to happen next.
All that said, the film is far from unwatchable. The concept is mildly interesting when you stop poking holes in it and just accept it for what it is. They also did a very good job of making Jai Courtney's character particularly evil and ensuring the audience cared about his fate. That was probably the strongest aspect of the film come to think of it. Still though, it isn't enough to save what was a pretty forgettable experience and not one I would recommend spending your hard earned on. -
natcalgary17 February 2020The acting and story line here were great. A great cast and kept me laughing the whole time.
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A_Different_Drummer28 February 2020Yet another low-budget quirky project in which Deutch is not only the best thing in the movie, but is invariably the only thing worth watching in the movie. The key is Brian Sacca's script which starts off cleverly and genuinely builds interest, then about halfway through crashes and burns horribly. The irony of a Canadian production company pretending to honor Buffalo is best left for Guinness to consider. as an award category
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timothymstewart29 October 2020But like other reviewers have said, the plot just fell apart. This movie had some potential to be really clever and hit a home run, but it fell short of the mark. I thought Zoey Deutch did a great job. She is a great actress.
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Gordon-1124 February 2020This film is quite entertaining, as it is a different kind of underdog story mixed with romantic comedy elements. The story is quite engaging. I enjoyed watching it.
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I tuned cause I'd never seen a movie set in Buffalo nor one about debt collecting. Glad I did. Good movie. I'm giving it more stars. By the way the moral is the rich get richer and we get screwed. Old story. Loved how they love their Bills football and wings lol.
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captjaxo8 April 2020This movie lives in such an illogical setting, it's difficult to keep watching. Characters hold anger against each other and then 5 seconds later act as if they've never met. I get that this movie was trying to show Peg's character as a chaotic problem solver, but even in chaos you have to live within reality. None of the ways that Peg was able to get off the hook with the law made clear sense and were glossed over. Her collection agency was constantly stacking money yet couldn't purchase any more debt that was pennies on the dollar? Not to mention, debt collectors never collect in cash and of course they use computers. "Just use the money from your student loan to pay it." What? The entirety of this lost movie was completely written for one stupid scene at the very end when Peg speaks to the camera. There's nothing prolific here, just poor research and extremely hasty writing. Brian, at least give your script a good once-over.
If you need consistent characters, believable emotional responses, logic, and the story to be grounded in a bit of real-world interactions, stay away from this one. -
In short: This isn't the best movie on similar subjects or about swindles (legal or not) but it is a decently solid movie, most actors perform well; Zoey Deutch especially - she's obv. here to stay, the camerawork is up to far for this kind of movie and the script seems to be decently realistic (recall that these were debt collectors on the very brink of grey) and last but not least the editing doesn't really hit home. In total - it won't blow your mind but if u got a rainy afternoon to spend it's an allright pick.
Pro's Acting Subject Americans being americans
Con's Doesn't peak as well as it could, or rather isn't given time to Doesn't really show anything hidden in the system (as the big short) Sound could have been better, alot of ramping up tension etc in movies like this is down to the sound.
End notes (also political rant): The notion that debt colletors buy debt that wouldn't be collected as a legalised racketeering operation is on point, in fascism you increase the number of poor - so most americans will get what they wanted (seing as republicans/freemasons now have picked side by showing their hand with their control over the democratic party - Biden over Sanders & Warren - really? USA will also get 4 more years of Trumph whcih by action show that laws does not apply, i wonder how leading by that action will impact the stability of the system while the bank sector keeps on speculating against the republic... Biden was choosen (yes elections these days are not free in the free world - that is clear) to loose to Trumph - and everyone are supposed to be shocked again?
Lastly: Think what you want with this movie Zoey Deutch shows she's here to stay, picking which low-mid budget moviescripts to sign on -
Kurios12 August 2021The 'wild west' type of debt collection as portrayed in this film may have been true decades ago, but today it is actually a HEAVILY regulated industry. Pretty everything the main character does in this film and the firm she works for would be sued out of existence in about 2 weeks for any one of those actions. The writers could not have done any research outside of reading a few stories off the Huffington Post. And the inaccuracies made an average flick with one decent performance a completely unwatchable flop.
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UniqueParticle24 August 2020Very enjoyable acting is superb and story is mediocre. Zoey Duetch is so entertaining I absolutely love her style! Buffaloed is a bit stale, definitely starts well and slows down like others said. I like the way it was written and how wild it is!
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westsideschl9 June 2020Enjoyed the acting; subject matter; spoofing of Buffalo. Started interesting, but about half way it just plateaued & felt too contrived. Central character never really developed a moral hook for me. The credits mentioned $13 trillion National Debt w/medical & student listed as most prevalent. Those numbers are for 2018, now the National Debt (mid 2020) is $25 trillion (and growing), and for consumer debt (movie listed 71 million people, but now 137 million). It's largely home payments followed by medical then student & car & credit card. Paying it all off (half is owned by foreign interests) is left to future generations courtesy of Trump (in part Covid necessary; in part tax breaks for wealthy; in part for re-election).
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thebricks16 February 2020Was this written by someone with a trust fund?
So Peg is supposed to be poor with a struggling mom operating a salon at home. She gets into an Ivy League school but despite being poor and enterprising, can't get any scholarships, so she resorts to unscrupulous behavior scalping Bills tickets that gets her serious prison time. In spite of being poor and basically caught dead to rights, she hires a private lawyer, fights the case in a trial and is shocked she owes $50K or so in legal fees. Really? Who would even take her case knowing she could never pay that money back? Most people in general get lawyers pro bono or public defenders if they want to fight a charge.
She gets out of prison and her brother offers her a job at his bar because she has no other options? If her brother was poor too, how did he get this bar? Supposedly, it was their dad's all along, but who was operating it until he got old enough? Why not sell it? This is never answered. So they really weren't as badly off as we were lead to believe.
She has wanted to get out of Buffalo her entire life, but needs a small fortune to leave? That doesn't make any sense? $10K at most is probably enough to pay for rent in another city for a year where she can use her talents to find another good job quite quickly. I just don't get it. Other people just hop on a bus and say screw it. A girl like her can waitress or find a way to make it if Buffalo is so bad. NYC is not far away either, lol.
Worse yet, she keeps all her money in boxes in her house, where anyone could steal it and set her back to square one. Now, that said, I have family who are horrible deadbeat debtors and that makes it hard for them to keep money in the bank, but even a repayment plan is better than keeping your money in your house.
Also, you can't just be talented at collecting debt by asking people nicely. Most of the time, people won't pick up. The person has to be willing to pay off the debt before it goes to court. Many people can't, others are just criminal and irresponsible, others are nuts. What goes on in this movie is fantasy. These boiler room workers at debt collection places probably get at most one person paying one small debt before they quit. The only one who benefits is the guy in charge. Some dirt poor girl just out of prison just can't usurp an established debt collection company. She just keeps making money materialize out of nowhere, especially to buy the debt paper in one of the worst business strategies of all time. You are not just going to hire a few random people and close that many accounts and make it look easy. Like I said, people dodge you, hang up, if a debt has gotten to that stage, more than likely, it's a formality, hope and prayer before a court case.
It's just a ridiculous movie. If it's supposed to be a comedy, ok, but it's not even well-done or believable. The whole script could have been fixed if she had a rich uncle or something to make it believable. That's the only way.
I like Zoey Deutch, she probably has a bright future, but this movie was a dog. What a shame. -
VoyagerMN198624 December 2019What a mess. Not dramatic, not funny, not interesting. In fact it looks like more energy and talent was put into attempting to shill ratings of this dog up than the talent put into writing it.
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kristasirota17 August 2022Really enjoyed it. Moves along quickly. The two leads are good, kept me interested, lots of laughs as well as a little touching. Don't listen to the negative reviews!
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drzaljay10 July 2022A good underdog story with a different way of doing it. With the gift of mox and a brain for finances we see peg get themselves out her situation. -First from someone born in buffalo the argument about the wings is odd because no one would recommend those two if someone is from there.- the biggest problems is the second act felt like they would've given more time but rushes through leaving some tension between peg and her former boss. The ending gives a enjoyable feeling, but over using the prison. It would've gave more value if the movie was longer. Overall the dynamics was good with using nice lighting but the issue is that it get started but the second act feels like a over flipped steak. Thank for the sauce of act 3 to bring it to be palatable. And Peggy being Peggy.
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dgarsia-5056121 June 2020I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was a great casting job Zoey always keeps me interested and entertained cant wait to see what she does next
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matthiasflores-7552014 September 2021Ver original film with some fun dialogue, good acting and comedy.
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johnnyrockets556 July 2020Starts fine and 20 minutes into the story, it just gets dumb and not entertaining. This is definitely a if you're in pandemic shut down it might be worth tuning in and get through 90 minutes, but in regular times I would pass.
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ricardoschtiegmokwena22 July 2020Zoey is in a league of her own! She approached the character with the right energy and I like how she became unattractive to suit Peggy-Far cry from the babe she is and usually plays in all her other films. Style of directing is good with nice cutting between scenes and cutaway shots. The cinematography and production design managed to capture the poverty stricken environment of the neighborhood with its tone and setting. Down set is that the movie doesn't peak as well as it could, because the script crashes after 45 mins or so; it becomes repetitive without knowing what genre it really wants to become-Factual Drama or comedy. The beginning is compelling and captivates then eventually the plot goes around in circles without any moral lesson from any of the characters especially Peggy. What is the message? There is also too much unnecessary profanity in place of decent dialogue. In all essence Zoey put in the work! She is a hard worker; devoted and hungry. You go baby girl-you killed it!
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Brainscreens26 February 2020It's a boring film, i was waiting for any excitement at all which the movie had some potentials to do, but for me it was a flatlined film with a ridiculous script. Acting wise, zoey killed it, but that's about it, i think she is the reason why i watched it till the end.
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stevojaxon25 February 2020This is a mini female Wolf of Wall Street. Yes it needs an extra 30 minutes, more money pumped into the production and fleshing out of the script and story. But Zoey the lead can have the world at her feet if she keeps this up and she picks her roles. Very impressive.
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itsbobr3 June 2020In Buffalo, New York since getting caught and put in prison for a football ticket scam Peg (Zoey Deutch) gets out and needs a job and gets hired by Wizz (Jai Courtney) who runs a debt collection service. She learns the ropes of debt collecting and later goes out on her own and this causes intense rivalry with Wizz.
Peg wants to be rich and collecting debts seems like a good start. She hires many who have a gift of gab. Peg Buffaloes people in that she has a way of bullying people into doing what she wants. See where the title comes from?
This is kind of a fast paced lesson in debt collecting and we see many of the methods used to collect the money. For Example: someone with a college debt doesn't want a collector to call his mother to get the money; or how about threatening to pull a business license. See? These things and more are done we are told.
In Peg's case, she vows to only use legal means to collect the debt. She becomes friends with Graham (Jermaine Fowler) a lawyer, who is also an Asst District Attorney who wants nothing to do with her unless she is completely legitimate. She claims she is.
Notables: Judy Greer as Kathy, Zoey's mother; Noah Reid as JJ, Zoey's brother who owns a bar.
A great scene in JJ's bar when the police are about to arrest all rival debt collector owners, the TV is on, but we don't see it, but all in the bar see that the Buffalo Bills are about to win a game and they all cheer when it happens. Great scene. Kudos.
What makes this movie about debt collecting is that this business has very little regulation in it and well, you can see how money can be made by lying to debt owners. Another example tells a debt owner that there is a sniper who will shoot him if he doesn't pay up. Extreme, yes, but you get the picture of a poorly regulated debt collection business.
However, this is quite entertaining even though Peg talks too fast thru most of the movie, which sets the pacing to be fast and furious.
Since this movie was in Buffalo, all I can say is: GO BILLS! (7/10)
Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: You decide. Language: Yes. Rating: B (3 June 2020) -
bombersflyup31 May 2020Despite the likable lead in Deutch, Buffaloed fails to engage or evoke.
Nothing more than a silly fantasy world facade, with a mockery of characters. The judge's characterization as an example, equally embodies that of the film.