Buffaloed (2020)

In this world there is nothing worse than being victim of falling into debt that you never can seem to pay off and so it gets worse and worse. Eventually, you end up falling behind because sometimes life is all about making hard choices and then come the vultures known as Debt Collectors. No this is not a public service announcement, but I am setting up today's film which is called Buffaloed and it was directed by Tanya Wexler (Girl With No Name). The film stars my latest celebrity crush Zoey Deutch (The Year Of Spectacular Men) as Ped Dahl, a homegrown Buffalo hustler who will try to do whatever it takes to get out of Buffalo since her father passed away. The only problem is that she gets involved in the underworlds of debt collecting and all hell breaks loose as she tries to stay afloat in the dirty game and avoid jail time again. The film also stars Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad) as Wizz, Judy Greer (Halloween 2018) as Kathy, Jermaine Fowler (BoJack Horseman) as Graham, Noah Reid (Schitt's Creek) as JJ, Lusia Strus (Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide) as Frances, Lorrie Odom (Isn't It Romantic) as Backer, Raymond Ablack (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as Prakash, James M. Connor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Clip, and  Brian Sacca (The Wolf Of Wall Street) as Sal.

Spoiler Alert: There may be sensitive information in this paragraph that could spoil parts of the film so proceed with caution. This was a different kind of role for Zoey while also being one that seems familiar and that is because she nailed her performance in the film. She was definitely the star of the film as the overall performance and flow of the film lied on her shoulders and for the most part she had me glued to see what happened next. The one thing that worked is that Jai Courtney played the perfect villain for her as he escalated things to a different level. The one character that annoyed me was the character of Graham who I didn't understand why he was still there. He is the reason she goes to jail on so many occasions even though he wants to be her boyfriend. It was like he put her in jail every time because she wouldn't quit the business thinking that she would afterwards, but I can definitely see why she kept him around. I liked the story because it showed how debt collectors could be scumbags if they chose to be and how annoying they can make your life if you don't pay them. I don't know if this is my favorite Zoey film, but she earned some respect from me here because besides her performance, I definitely liked the cinematography and the tone of the film. The overall tone of the film was gray because it seemed like Buffalo was a dead end for her so they didn't use bright colors or effects for the city and that was effective. So, with all that being said, I am going to give the album an B+ for a final grade.