Decided to rewatch after fucking heavy with The Brown Bunny, and it’s somehow even better than I remembered. Gallo is I believe one of the best directors at capturing the most painfully real vulnerability and fractured virility. Maybe it’s so real because this character is a version of him. (makes sense within the story that no one on set liked working with him) It also makes Ricci performance even more incredible because just from her reactionary glances you actually get a feeling that the Layla character feels for Billy. It’s a movie like this that evokes such a strong emotion from me. It’s not a safe movie; it’s risky to make your main character so disreputable. He blames how everyone treated him for how he is, yet he still has the urge to please them by creating fake stories and fantasies of the life he feels he should have, and I believe the ending is when that fantasy and reality comes together. It’s so effective. Masterpiece.