La balada de Buster Scruggs

The Coen Brothers are some of the most popular and also best movie directors currently working. They created one of my all time favourite movies in The Big Lebowski (1998), and some of the best movies of their respectable decades such as the cult hit Fargo (1996) & the Neo-Noir Western No Country for Old Men (2007). And now they return in 2018, together with Netflix, to present the most unique movie of the year!

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs tells six individual and self contained storys in the Wild West. As usual, the movie looks stunning. It is beautifully shot, has some of the best cinematography of recent years and it's just a joy to watch. Also the composed soundtrack is really fitting. As said, the movie is cut in six minor portions: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Near Aldgones, Meal Ticket, All Golds Canyon, the Gal who got Rattled & the Mortal Remains.

They do not have anything particular in common plot wise, but thematically they all tell the huge story of the Wild West - the dark & crazy, sometimes sad side of it. Because make no mistake, this is a really brutal movie. While the first story is very big on comedic relief, the later chapters get really dark, especially the third having a heartbreaking and strangely poetic ending. The fifth story was probably the most cinematic story, since it told a beautiful little tale that could've been easily explored in a regular film. And the last story is basically only one huge dialogue. It's remarkable at how the Coens write their dialogue - it's eventually only people talking about their lifes and out of nowhere the mood changes into complete danger and suspense. The acting of the over all many performers was great as usual, with especially notable performances by Liam Neeson, Tom Waits & Tim Blake Nelson.

There are a few tiny things that bothered me (would've liked a bit more of Gleeson), but these are minor concerns. The Coens are back with another tightly written, thought provoking and fully enjoyable movie that reflects on not only their recurring themes/patterns of violence & fantastic dialogue but also to tell the huge story of the Wild West in its most heartbreaking fashion.

This is the most unique movie of the year!

I was fortunate enough to see this at the LFF with the Coen brothers present. During their introduction they mentioned how they wrote each chapter as a series of shorts over 25 years, and it certainly felt like this both in good ways and bad. Each story was completely different from the one either side of it and none were short of originality. Stories unfolded in the way only a Coen brother's film could - a style that I have always admired.

What was slightly disappointing was its lack of continuity. Each of the stories are completely contained and the final short was one of the most disappointing for me ending in quite an anticlimax. I understand these shorts are independent of one another but had they intersected in some way I think there could have been a much more satisfying conclusion. But the subversion of that expectation I also admire, my brain was just full of the interesting situations that could have unfolded had these characters come into contact with each other - as per a Tarantino film. It could also have ended with a different short as the 5th story for me (and the gold panning segment) was arguably the best.

Aside from the story itself the film has great visuals, some amazing one liners and incredible acting performances - especially considering the lengths actors went to in order to get into character for just a 20 minutes segment of a film. Overall expect 6 Coen brothers shorts sewn together with the thinest fabric imaginable and a time at the cinema like you haven't had all year.

When they remade TRUE GRIT, the Coen Brothers clearly thought there weren't enough John Ford westerns -- I agree with them -- so they offered the audience one. With THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS they clearly think there aren't enough movies offering the strengths of the classic B and short westerns: open vistas, lone prospectors, wagon trains, bank robbers, cattle rustlers, gunslinging, moralizing singing cowboys who wander the barren west, strumming their "Radio King" guitars for their horses, and five people inside a stage yarning to each other. So they stuck together half a dozen stories, got their usual assortment of top talent and offered them to us. I am extremely grateful.

Their cinematographer, Bruno Delbonnel, offers us a variety of lighting. I was most impressed by his choices for "The Girl Who Got Rattled", which is staged like posters for WESTWARD THE WOMEN and lit like the covers for Louis Lamour paperbacks in the 1960s. There's an air of artificiality that pervades the movie. That's common enough for the Coens, who like to mock their dead cinematic peers, but. like HAIL, CAESAR shows their fondness for their subject.

Finally a movie that feels genuine start to finish and a movie that entertains. You are never sure where it starts and where it will end,all the characters immediately feel real without wasting any time. And perhaps most importantly, this is a movie that does not insult your intelligence like almost all other movies do.

This movie has an accumulative effect. The stories range from funny to grim to harrowing to ironic to haunting to horrifying. You barely have time to recover from one before you're thrust into the next one. The format is set up as a dime Western book where we get to see six of the stories. There is a real authentic western feel to them. A real grit.

Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography is spectacular. Wide sweeping vistas, majestic mountains, stylized towns, all beautifully captured. There's also a surreal feel to some the stories. Imagine if 'Pulp Fiction' were all western stories. And on that train of thought, TBoBS succeeds in many areas where 'The Hateful Eight' did not. A great collection of short movies by the Coen Brothers.