Zoey Deutch is Unhinged, Anti-Hero Debt Collector in Buffaloed

An estimated 137 million Americans are struggling to pay medical bills, and research also suggests that 66.5% of all personal bankruptcies are tied to medical issues. Crazy right?!  What’s even more surprising is that Buffalo, New York literally is the credit debt capital of America. I know!!!

Well, Director Brian Sacca, a native of Buffalo, has brought the dirty, smarmy world of collections to the big screen with Zoey Deutch as the hustler with big dreams who falls into the world of medical debt collection in Buffaloed.

Peg (Zoey Deutch) knows the world of con all too well.  It was scalping Buffalo Bills tickets that lands her in jail and forces her to re-evaluate her life of crime.  Just when she thinks she has it all figured out, she gets sucked into the world of debt collection.  A world that is sleazy, dishonest and all about who can make the most dough and how.  Make no mistake about it, Zoey Deutch is the feminine anti-hero/hero of this film.  You want to hate how utterly despicable she is, but can’t help the empathy you feel for her desire to have a better life by any means necessary.

Judy Greer is easily one of those cinematic comedy stars whose brilliance is highly underrated.  However, as Kathy, Peg’s Mom, Greer unleashes her untapped dramatic chops and does so with verve, undercover grit all while displaying the love and advice only a mother can provide.

Both ladies’ performances are in part due to the stellar and focused direction of Tanya Wexler and  in his first feature, ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ actor turned screenwriter Brian Sacca knocks it out of the park.  One steps into this journey thinking that they’ve seen this film before.  Yes, there are elements that are very familiar,  However, what Sacca really accomplishes here is a story where for once a woman is the protagonist and at times not a very likable one all while pulling the covers back on a world that has become a new land to prey on the elderly and poor.  What is also appreciated is the interracial love story between Fowler and Deutch, which is more reflective of the world we currently navigate in and around.

Two scenes have a special impact on the viewing audience. The jailhouse interrogation scene with Greer and Deutch is realistically heartbreaking and the scene where Peg literally goes into an elderly woman’s home to convince her that ‘debt never dies.’ It’s that ideology that has millions of Americans getting scammed over medical debt daily

Which is why it is so appropriate to point out that Magnolia Pictures has partnered up with RIP Medical Debt to eliminate 1.5 million in debt using donations to purchased to purchase bundled medical debt portfolios that have gone into collection.

Let’s keep it real.  I enjoyed Buffaloed, mostly due to the fact that I have been one of those millions of Americans a debt collector attempted to scan.  This film, if nothing else will pull the shade up over a business that is dirty, crazy and simply unhinged.  Not to mention the fact, that these types of characters are mostly portrayed as men.  It was nice to see a woman have the brains for once.

Buffaloed, produced by Magnolia Pictures, is in theatrical release right now and is highly recommended by this Curvy Critic.