La Ballade de Buster Scruggs

Beautifully observed vignettes which give believable insights into the lives of early settlers to the Wild West. Ironic, tragic and sometimes comic, each one is entertaining in its own way and serves as a reminder of the harshness of the time.

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.

The first 17 minutes were the highlight, and it went downhill from there. That first segment, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", was excellent. I could watch an entire movie based on that character, played extremely well by Tim Blake Nelson. It was interesting and funny.

"Near Algodones" kept me interested, and I enjoyed the characters, but there was no take away, so it kind of fell flat.

"Meal Ticket" was worthless and should have been cut altogether. It was extremely boring and sad.

"All Gold Canyon" and "The Gal Who Got Rattled" were enjoyable and interesting. Good characters and beautiful cinematography. Both segments kept my interest.

"The Mortal Remains" had some interesting dialogue but it fell off and didn't seem to have a point.

So one segment was fantastic, three others were pretty good, and two were completely forgettable. A mixed bag, but I generously give it a 6/10.

How do you rate a movie that is very well done, but you just don't connect with it at all? I love the Coen brothers, and I watched this with an open heart. Not every Coen brothers movie knocks it out of the park, but all of them are at least smart and interesting. The same holds true for this one, though I'm sorry to say that I found myself bored throughout most of it.

Six stories is a lot to process in one sitting. The problem for me was that I would be watching one of the segments, trying to understand its significance or find something to appreciate story-wise, and then we moved on to the next tale.

There was nothing wrong with it and I would consider watching it again some time with a fresh perspective. This movie did seem to have a grasp on itself and I trust that the Coens knew what they were doing. It was very unique and beautifully shot, but I think this one ranks low on the Coen's filmography. And if this wasn't a Coen brothers movie, I would probably be more dismissive of it.

I'm not really sure were I stand with this film, it started off really well, but just went down hill. I liked a couple of the stories, but some are just really weird. The cinematography is excellent. I stuck with it till the very end but was very close to switching it off but something just kept me watching it.

I would say its worth giving it ago, but don't be surprised if you don't like it.