Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) by Enterfilm — 04 Feb 2019

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a Western Anthology written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, with 6 interesting and unique tales of the Old West. Now before I even watched this, I was excited as hell. One of the main reasons being, that True Grit another western Coen brothers movie, happens to be my personal favourite.

We begin with Tim Blake Nelson starring as the cheerful, singing Buster Scruggs riding horseback through the Wild West. This was without a doubt my favourite story of the movie, I found it absolutely hilarious with an incredibly entertaining and satirical character that is Buster Scruggs was just perfect. The story is full of dark comedy and I knew at this moment the Coen Brothers were at it again, and I was in for a treat.

The second story 'New Algodones', stars James Franco as a lone cowboy who arrives at an isolated bank on the prairie with Stephen Root as a lone bank teller. Which was my favourite performance of the movie, I thought Root was fantastic.

Damn did they change, we move on to a rather grim and much darker tale 'Meal Ticket' starring Liam Neeson as a not so talkative impresario and Henry Melling as a quadruple amputee orator. The pair moving from town to town with the orator performing poetry, books and speeches from the back of their horse-drawn wagon. This one was so impossibly different from the two previous tales.

All Gold Canyon (filmed in the beautiful Colorado) is a visually stunning story which is a drastic change from what we just watched in the last story. Tom Waits absolutely smashes it as and old gold prospector trying to hunting for the find of a lifetime. This was quite a long story and isn't very action packed but honestly, I really liked it.

Followed by 'The Gal Who Got Ratted', with Zoe Kazan as a young women joining the Oregon Trail and Bill Heck as one of the trail operators. This for me started out a bit slow, but as the story progressed as did my enjoyment.

We end with 'The Mortal Remains', 5 very different characters on their rather claustrophobic stagecoach journey. Filled with rich dialogue, and a singing number by a pair of bounty hunters played by Brendan Gleeson and Jonjo O'Neill. Characters trading insults, stories, philosophies and questioning morals.

I found the changes in mood and tone between each tale to be rather interesting keeping my pleasantly surprised. And I am certainly all for the Coen Brothers trying more funky stuff like this.