Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Buffaloed’ on Hulu, in Which Zoey Deutch Wings It Through Some Upstate New York Colloquial Comedy

Now streaming free for Hulu subscribers, Buffaloed is one of those misfit indie movies showcasing a rising talent in a dominant role. In this case, it’s Zoey Deutch, who you might know from Vampire Academy or the TV series The Politician, but for my nickel, was extraordinary in (the highly underrated) Everybody Wants Some!!, stealing the movie outright with an effervescent third-act performance. Can she similarly charm us in this heavily colloquial Upstate New York comedy?

BUFFALOED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The movie begins with the bellowing of a heavyweight profanity. It’s the low point for Peg (Deutch), who dashes through the streets of Buffalo and, with a rebel yell, pulls a gold-plated 9mm from her purse. Then, we flash back to Peg’s childhood, after her father died, and her mother, Kathy (Judy Greer), is making her finish off her plate of Buffalo wings before she can get up from the dinner table. They eat cheap wings because it’s Buffalo, duh, but also because they can’t afford tuna casserole. A light bulb figuratively, not literally, blinks on above her head: she starts selling the wings for a profit. Then she’s in high school, selling cigarettes from the trunk of a car. Next thing you know, she’s raking in cash hocking counterfeit Bills tickets to football dopes. And then, she’s in prison for a stretch, mostly for her illicit scheme, but also probably for exploiting the gullible loyalties of proud-idiot Bills fans.

Peg’s sting in the pokey saddled her mother with legal fees, so debt collectors keep calling with the relentless mercilessness of great white loan sharks. She learns that these phone monkeys work for a shady, fake-tan douchebrain named Wizz (Jai Courtney), who buys debt, or “paper” in the parlance of the biz, for pennies on the dollar and turns a tidy profit by offering buyout deals to the folks in debt. This is sort of legal, but maybe also illegal — you know, one of those “gray areas of the law” you hear so much about, and that Peg explains in a sequence that busts the fourth wall like this is The Big Short or something. She joins Wizz’s crew, and learns she’s pretty much born to turn poor people upside-down and shake money out of their pockets.

After an inevitable row with Wizz, another bulb blinks to life: she’ll start her own debt-collection racket, and bogart business from that misogynist, violent creep. She gathers a rogue’s gallery to staff her office — phone-sex workers, bible salesmen, etc. — and gets to work exacting revenge and hopefully stacking enough cash to maybe escape the wing-sauce hell of Buffalo. Complicating things, as things always must be complicated, Peg is kind of dating Graham (Jermaine Fowler), who happens to be the prosecutor who put her in jail, and who happens to be investigating illegal debt-collection schemes. Small town. And it clearly isn’t big enough for Wizz and Peg.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: ALWAYS BE CLOSING! Imagine Glengarry Glen Ross, but with more references to “peetza an’ pahhp.” Deutch also enjoys her own Wolf of Wall Street rallying speech, except with high-waisted track pants instead of pinstripes.

Performance Worth Watching: As Judy Greer Fan Club member No. 48447 (see also: my review of Into The Dark: Good Boy), I must acknowledge how she commandeers this mostly glib screenplay during a third-act scene with Deutch that lends the film a necessary shot of emotional truth.

Memorable Dialogue: Peg’s friend Jin (Paulyne Wei) ditches her massage business to man the phone bank: “I didn’t come to the promised land to fondle soft wieners. I came to get rich.”

Sex and Skin: Peg and Graham engage in some morning-after smooching in their undies.

Our Take: Deutch and director Tanya Wexler whip up a small tornado of vivacious energy that’s the film’s most endearing trait. The Peg character is small of stature but relentless of spirit; she refuses to stop swimming even when she’s in over her head, because she trusts her brain to outflank the brawn. I’d go so far as to say her trusty powder-blue vintage Chevette has no rust on it despite heavy Buffalo winters because it’s protected by her impenetrable forcefield of moxie and zeal.

Of course, Peg is a criminal and antiheroine. We shouldn’t root for her; she uses her skills to exploit the vulnerable. It’s a testament to Deutch’s performance that we hold out hope there’s a good, righteous person beneath her self-serving ways. The screenplay, by Buffalo native Brian Sacca, is heavy on Buffalo-sure-is-goofy jokes (the judge presiding over Peg’s case speaks between bites of Buffalo wings), but it shows ambition when it exploits debt-collection rings — a growing industry in the city — for tasty satire. It deploys some obvious jokes and a predictable twist, but works its way to a solid punchline that makes living in post-capitalist times almost funny. Almost.

Our Call: STREAM IT. You don’t need to be from Buffalo to let Deutch Buffalo you in Buffaloed, but it wouldn’t hurt.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Buffaloed on Hulu