SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Terrell Howell (KnightsofNi11) I love films like this. Limited, resourceful, and yet makes mountains out of molehills. I also love David Mamet and I could listen to his expert dialouge for hours on end. So how could I not love this film? Sure if you dissect it, it has some issues, but I can't help but love everything it does. The movie only has three characters. Dustin Hoffman is Teach, a bitter and cynical man whose friend is Don, played by Dennis Franz. Don owns a junk shop and also looks out for Bob, a street kid with a lot of issues. When Teach and Don learn that they might have been jipped out of some very valuable coins they decide they're going to go steal the coins back. The plan reveals the dark inner turmoil the three characters feel and it is ultimately their quest to find meaning and purpose in a world that has hung them out to dry. It's a story of futile human desperation delivered through snappy and quick witted dialouge that I found fascinating.It's imperative to mention that this film is only dialouge. There is no action, no special effects, and not even a change in scenery. I might be crazy for saying this, but I loved it. It was an extremely interesting watch to see what could be accomplished on an existential level with so little tangible material. The film was originally a stage play written by David Mamet that he adapted into a screenplay with little to no changes in his near perfect dialouge. Because of the little change in location and the unusually small cast of three I get the feeling the film works better as a stage play, but having never seen the stage version, the movie was a great watch unto itself. Everything is kept very simple and all of the focus was on the actors and the dialouge they delivered making the movie very unconventional, so much to the point where it doesn't really feel like a movie. But this uniqueness is what I enjoyed so much about the film, just out of personal love for the strange and different.Now I will admit that if the film had not had good actors to back up Mamet's sharp edged dialouge, American Buffalo would have been an awful, dreary, and pathetically boring film. But the three main, and only, actors in the film keep it lively and interesting from start to finish. Hoffman and Franz work together as a perfect duo and their contrast in characteristic give the film a lot of its deep perplexity on the human condition. Nelson isn't in the movie as much as Hoffman and Franz, but when he is present he does a great job, and his character is very important to the progression of the story. The actors do a lot of justice to the ingenious dialouge of this film.There isn't much more to say about American Buffalo. There isn't a whole lot to the film, but what elements it does possess are fantastic. The dialouge and acting is brilliant, and there isn't much more to the movie. I honestly loved how different of a movie experience this was, and can give the movie nothing but props for making me think and delivering to me such a unique experience.

Lee Eisenberg "American Buffalo" is definitely not a movie for everyone. A downer in every sense, it portrays three pitiful characters with nowhere to go in life. I guess that overall, there's little to be said about the movie. It's little more than a way to pass time. The whole thing has the distinct feel of a play (it all happens pretty much in one room), but Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Franz and Sean Nelson have little to do here. Still, it might make you ponder your own direction in life.I have to wonder about that coin featuring the buffalo. When you think about it, that coin went the way of the buffalo. Maybe I'm the only person who notices that.

gridoon Overly talky and often tedious and annoying (especially at the start), "American Buffalo" seems to be going around in circles. Mamet's dialogue is occasionally amusing (like in the "wrong number" scene), but cannot completely cover up the fact that nothing much happens - by the time the film ends, not one thing has changed in the characters' lives. There are some tense moments and the performances are good, but I can't imagine more than 10% of any given audience enjoying this film. (**)

caspian1978 Your average movie goer will not enjoy this film. With a small cast of three main characters, the majority of the film takes place in a single room. This alone may explain why the film never took off as the blockbuster it should have been with actors such as Dennis Franz and Dustin Hoffman. The direction of the film could have been much better that it turned out to be. Like other critics have said, the film was shot like it was being acted on stage. This is very true. The film has no unique directing style nor does it have any strong motif to add to the films creative look and style. The acting in the film, on the other hand, is wonderful. Franz and Hoffman are excellent together. With a stronger movie maker in the director's chair, the movie could have been much much better.