Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by Jluis_001 — 17 Nov 2018

After the disappointing Hail, Caesar! I would say that my expectations for a new Coens film were not that high anymore but both are still very good directors and screenwriters and definitely The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a more satisfying film but it's also far from being memorable.

Although I'm aware that in the first instance it was planned for these stories to be a miniseries, the truth is that it turned out better as a film. The last thing I would expect from the Coens was an anthology and although the final result is satisfactory enough, the narrative quality of all the stories is quite uneven.

I think they realized they functioned better as an ensemble than as separate entities in a miniseries with obviously more extensive storytelling processes but that evidently wouldn't have been equally fruitful.

They still don't surpass Inside Llewyn Davis but maybe with the Coens that is their process: they deliver a couple of regular films to finish off with an excellent one. They have been doing it since Fargo.