The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 2018
The Coen Brothers have been uneven for me lately, but they do know how to shoot a movie. In The Ballad of Buster Scruggs they actually shoot six movies, all westerns. The movies are generally dark, violent, and a little funny. Almost like binge-watching episodes of The Twilight Zone, each piece rushes to tell a complete story, often with a twist. In fact they are set up like a collection of short stories where you see the first and last page of each story in the book. Things develop and end fairly quickly, so it is pretty lively. And they very much focus on characters, with some very good performances by some well known actors and some not as well known. Each takes advantage of the beauty of the West and the hard life of those times, so it delivers on a lot of levels: characters, quick stories, good performances, and great scenery. The stories tend to be pretty dark, but I love short stories, so I also enjoyed watching each of these unfold. Still, it’s kind of like cheating and while I liked most of the stories, they are pretty nihilistic with a common theme of death, though you don’t have that much invested at least.
Written: 09 Feb 2019