American Buffalo

Two-time Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Dustin Hoffman and two-time Emmy winner Dennis Franz ("NYPD Blue") deliver tour-de-force performances as volatile small-time hustlers in this edgy, electrifying story of trust, betrayal and loyalty gone dangerously awry. American Buffalo is a riveting study in human virtue and vulnerability from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Mamet (Wag the Dog, The Edge, The Untouchables) and director Michael Corrente. For down-and-out junk dealer Don (Franz), life goes from unlucky to unbearable when he discovers that the rare, buffalo head nickel he just sold for $90 is worth ten times as much! Refusing to let himself beout-swindled, Don enlists the help of a young protÃ(c)gÃ(c) (Sean Nelson) in a scheme to steal the coin back. But their plans are suddenly altered by the intrusion of Teach (Hoffman), a disturbingly aggressive would-be thief who badgers Don into cutting him in on the heista decision that carries explosive consequences for everyone involved. *1988: Actor, Rain Man; 1979: Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer

David Mamet's hit play from the 1970s has made it to the screen with its grim humor intact. The story of a robbery that never actually happens, the three-character drama focuses on a set of small-timers looking for a big score: Donny (Dennis Franz), who runs a junk shop; his jittery young assistant, Bobby (Sean Nelson); and Teach (Dustin Hoffman), a card-playing pal of Donny's with a nose for a shifty deal. Donny has accidentally sold a rare buffalo-head nickel to a customer not realizing what it's worth, and so he and Bobby are planning to steal it back--and Teach wants a piece of the job. Mamet's trademark testosterone-fueled jabber is less about crime than about the ways men talk to--and at--each other. Hoffman is grungily appealing as a guy who always goes a step too far, while Franz brings a quiet power to his role as a man who always knows more than he says. --Marshall Fine