Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by Redshiftxiii — 18 Nov 2018

It's a historical materialist's take on western fiction, that ties various stories together with a few common themes. Each story could be seen as quips against human nature, each story holds true to their own theme of life lessons (i.e. there will always be someone better, think before you leap, etc . . .) and each story represents a different aspect of the same general setting (in keeping with the materialist approach).

I'd wager most of the negative reviews are more of a critique of penny dreadfuls being on the big screen next to tradition style movies, rather than the quality or entertainment value of the piece itself. The biggest downside is that they don't use fluff, and even the breaks with seemingly meaningless scenes, have some apparent connection to the overall collection. All this leaves you with very little time to absorb everything from one story, before the next story starts. There's almost no downtime (in terms of message loaded scenes) with this movie and it's 2 hours long.

I recommend watching it at least twice. You also might want to take breaks if you have the luxury.