The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Directed by: Ethan & Joel Coen
Written by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Bill Heck, Grainger Hines, Harry Melling, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Jonjo O’Neill, Brendan Gleeson, Tyne Daly, Chelcie Ross, Saul Rubinek, Stephen Root, Jefferson Mays, Clancy Brown
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 132 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Nov 2018
Written by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Bill Heck, Grainger Hines, Harry Melling, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Jonjo O’Neill, Brendan Gleeson, Tyne Daly, Chelcie Ross, Saul Rubinek, Stephen Root, Jefferson Mays, Clancy Brown
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 132 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Nov 2018
The Coen brothers have two things to offer you in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a vision and a whole lot of nerve. The title is misleading. Buster Scruggs is just one supporting character of many in an anthology film - a movie comprised of six short films. Buster is by far my favorite character, yet he only appears in one segment, the first, which is also the film's best. I was sad to leave him behind when the story ends and the camera shows an actual book turning the page to the next story. The Coen brothers know full well Buster Scruggs is the most fascinating character in the film because they named it after him and he bats lead off. Therefore, imagine the guts required to make your best character only one-sixth of your movie. The rest had better be good.
It is! I do not claim all of the six short stories are as good as "Buster Scruggs", they are not, but they are all mesmerizing and delivered in that peculiar Coen brothers way we are so familiar with. It’s not six Coen films for the price of one, rather it feels like six stories the brothers had to get out of them. Perhaps none are strong enough on their own to merit a full two-hour feature film, but all are worthy of a portion of one. All six segments are a western sub-genre stereotype including a cowboy musical, a bank hold-up in a tumbleweed town, adventure on the Oregon Trail, and stagecoach dramatics. The Coens are more than familiar with westerns, remember they remade True Grit and won a Best Picture Oscar for the modern western, No Country for Old Men.
It is! I do not claim all of the six short stories are as good as "Buster Scruggs", they are not, but they are all mesmerizing and delivered in that peculiar Coen brothers way we are so familiar with. It’s not six Coen films for the price of one, rather it feels like six stories the brothers had to get out of them. Perhaps none are strong enough on their own to merit a full two-hour feature film, but all are worthy of a portion of one. All six segments are a western sub-genre stereotype including a cowboy musical, a bank hold-up in a tumbleweed town, adventure on the Oregon Trail, and stagecoach dramatics. The Coens are more than familiar with westerns, remember they remade True Grit and won a Best Picture Oscar for the modern western, No Country for Old Men.
While the Coen brothers are famous for championing the endearing oddball archetype, they are also known for how they bring their stories to life. Over the past 30 years, they have worked with mostly the same cast and crew. Once again, Carter Burwell tackles the score. Tim Blake Nelson (Kill the Messenger) as the eponymous singing gunslinger was part of George Clooney’s buffoonish ‘off the chain gang' crew in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Stephen Root (Get Out), the old west’s most fascinating bank teller, shows up again. Yet, there are so many roles to fill in all of these stories some new talent gets to play in the Coen universe, James Franco and Liam Neeson being the most famous.
Another standard procedure Coen acolytes admire is the directors' love for character actors. John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, and John Tuturro are the most notorious members of the Coen stable, but how refreshing is it to get a film with Clancy Brown, Brendan Gleeson, and Tom Waits as both central and peripheral figures? Tom Waits (Seven Psychopaths) gets almost an entire segment to himself as an older, but world wise, gold prospector in "All Gold Canyon". The film’s last segment, “The Mortal Remains”, is set in a stagecoach with six actors taking turns with the conversation in a recognizable Coen style, a pace comprised of long, quirky speeches punctuated by staccato interjections - this particular segment appears highly influenced by Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
Above all, I believe American movie-goers take the Coen brothers for granted. They habitually create memorable, culturally-appropriated, relevant gems. I was a high school senior when The Big Lebowski came out and remember my classmates who saw it first hated it. “It was so weird.” Now, I have no doubt many of them are Lebowski fanatics along with the rest of us. With experience in so many diverse genres from comedic satire to the darkest blood gushers, Ethan and Joel Coen achieved a mastery of tone which is what such a wide-ranging film like Buster Scruggs requires for it to work. Every chapter has a different tone. “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is light as a feather and hysterical. “Meal Ticket” is a puzzle until it turns shocking in its deliberate coldness. “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” featuring a strong performance from Zoe Kazan, is absolutely heartbreaking if you let it get to you.
The feelings and attitudes these segments elicit are all over the map. Yet, the Coen brothers pull it off. I was sad to see most of these stories end, but delighted at the same time because I knew the next one was going to be just as engrossing. Sometimes, Coen films just sneak through and come and go without the appreciation they deserve. Hail, Caesar! made my list as one of the 10 best films of 2016, yet it spawned hardly a ripple in theaters. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a Netflix release and will spend its lifetime on streaming platforms. Films released in this manner are bound to be forgotten before their time is up. As we drop in and out of these six hypnotizing tales, habitual streamers may also drop in and out of a truly special Coen brothers borderline masterpiece without recognizing just how superior it is scrunched beside all of the other baseline banality in the Netflix queue. As the narrator would say as he turns another page in the film, “Do not forget Buster Scruggs!”
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