#BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS MOVIE#

#BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS MOVIE#

This tonal inconsistency undermines a movie that already plays hard into its “death-comes-to-all” message with each story.

Which ones to cut depends on your mileage with the lively and quirky earlier stories or the blunt and brooding later stories, which may seem either too crude or too boring when compared. One or two stories could have even been left out to allow the others to fully develop. While no story’s plot feels too sluggish or rushed to be a major problem, thanks to consistently well-timed delivery of lines and action sequences, the differences in length between stories is apparent while viewing. Put and seen altogether, however, the cohesiveness wears thin. It’s a fitting visual comparison to the movie itself, with its comical introduction to Scruggs and its starkly contrasting, ominous ending.Īs challenging as the anthology format is to execute, most of the stories are consistent in theme yet different in substance. The characters’ realization happens over the course of a stagecoach ride that starts with glimmering sunshine and then sinks into an inky black night. The last story drives this message home, as a group of strangers bicker over what the “two types of people in the world” are - to which they are grimly reminded that perhaps the only real difference is if one is alive or dead. Whether driven by greed or sickness or pride, death is a chaotic and indiscriminate force. However, all of the stories echo the same theme. Maybe I’m particular to traditional, emotionally-rewarding arcs, but my favorite story is the second to last vignette, “The Gal Who Got Rattled.” Unlike in the previous stories, death left a hanging cloud of consequences and felt especially unjustified. As each tale grew less amusingly peculiar and more somber and bleak, I found myself worrying less that the Coens had created a dud like their previous “Suburbicon,” and worrying more about the unknown outcomes of some characters I quickly became invested in. But, the stories are admittedly compelling when you never know what to expect. I’m not typically one to enjoy unnecessary graphic violence, and the clash between the Coens’ nihilism and absurdist humor make for an unsettling watch at times. During the first few stories, I asked, “what was the point of that?” after a character jarringly died - to which the movie seemed to laugh at me and continue on without missing a beat. It’s no spoiler to say that a death occurs in each story. The following stories play out in a similar fashion. James Franco plays a different cowboy, with just the right amount of good luck, bad luck, and black humor as Buster. Then, almost too abruptly, the next story begins.

But when the cards are on the table, several unexpected matches between the happy-go-lucky Buster and various disgruntled gunslingers leave only one man standing. His scrawny look, shining white clothes, and carefree demeanor seem out of place against a backdrop of seedy, pistol-wielding criminals who’d rather see him six feet underground. The first story opens with a singing Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson) atop his horse. It’s a tongue-in-cheek stylistic decision, for the tales themselves feature a death count that could rival an action movie. This uncommon short-story format is told through the lens of a storybook labeled “Tales From the American Frontier.” With transitions between stories done through the literal turnings of pages, the movie treats the passage of the on-screen tales as almost innocuous bedtime stories. Joel and Ethan Coen, the minds behind classics such as “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski,” partnered with Netflix to release their latest film, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” a title as head-scratching as its premise.Īs a Western anthology film, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” has every trope from the genre packed into six short vignettes, including saloon shootouts, the Oregon Trail, confrontations with native Americans, and gold hunting. So after a year of critically panned movies (“The Cloverfield Paradox”) and harmless, but middling rom-coms (“Set It Up”), it was frankly surprising to see the names of two highly respected, Oscar-winning filmmakers plastered across the Netflix home screen. Original movies are not known to be Netflix’s strong suite. The Coen brothers’ Netflix Original movie, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” is a mixed bag of short stories and surprises.

Ballad of buster scruggs