Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by Travis W — 15 Dec 2018

In their last picture, Hail, Caesar!, the Coens made a film of sideshows and loose-ends that spun off from the central narrative. The job of Josh Brolin's character was to quiet these disturbances and keep the main story on track, both figuratively and literally.

In The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the Coens have dispensed with the central narrative altogether, allowing their vignettes of the old West to spool forth unencumbered by a unifying structure, save a picture book anthology that introduces each story with an illustrated plate.

Mortality is the shared theme undergirding each story, for no tale is without its violent conclusion, and a progressive sobriety builds throughout the film. The first chapter pitches shoot ï¿ 1/2~em up violence alongside wisecracks, irreverent glee, and song and dance numbers.

The musical carries on even after death. But, by the final installment, much of the humor has been vacated and all that remains is the tragedy and solemnity of mortal ends. Two bounty hunters talk of entertaining their victims with stories, while unnoticed the grim reaper sidles in to do his inevitable work.

The Coens, these two great modern yarn-spinners, know exactly what they're doing and have been doing all this time.