Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by Shayan S — 04 Jan 2019

The Coen Brothers at this point no need introduction to most casual and even die hard cinephiles due to how much consistent (for the most part anyways) films they've put out the last couple years; with a lot of their signature trademarks of a nice self-awareness to comedy, storytelling, and genuinely on point directing and interesting angle of stories either meeting no point linearly from a storytelling perspective or so on point that it sticks with you for awhile. Most of it sticks, while a lot of the novelty can feel a bit too much and inconsistent (Hail Caesar for example despite its well intentions was all over the place). So with their new release, I was curious how a 6 part anthology of stories could fair for the duo and keep their charm after this long: Glad to say after a quick binge of the film, it stays true to this rather greatly.

It's certainly not their best film however, in fact when it came down to just some minor preference issues with maybe making a bit more better use of of the anthology films to give some of the lengthy expansions to some stories than others and maybe some super minor editing cuts and wishing for maybe some of its stories to add more than others seem to have, those overall didn't necessarily get to me to say that this is probably their strongest comback in a long time, and trust me that's definitely saying something. This is large in part thanks to some kind of no brainer its good but still worth noting writing and directing that the Coens I think safely said put a lot of good effort to and helps give the film a lot of a nice feel and aesthetic with of course their great use of set up and payoff to humor and writing, gorgeous and really diverse cinematography, pretty much fantastic acting all around, very standard and even weirdly fast but still well composed cuts and editing, and I think what's maybe the biggest thing the film has going for it is its great use of anthology based stories and most importantly a fantastic soundtrack; one that if not for the competent filmmaking would've been easy to be lost in the wind and generic but instead really lays its mark on each story and has motifs that elevate the film so much.

So suffice to say rather shortly, The Ballad of Buster Srugges really feels like a nice return to form for the duo. And while I did wish it had a bit more going on to it to make it a little more investing akin to No Country or True Grit (or add to the absurdity and investment that Burnt After and O Brother), rest assured this is still a very great film and one that has its great payoff when you look deep into its stories. Definitely check this out and here's hoping they come back with something hopefully more strong.

Score: 8.5 / 10.