Any new Coen Brothers flick is a cause for celebration. The writer/director duo have brought many classics to the big screen over the course of their career. But now, they bring their talents to the small screen (unless you’re lucky enough to live in the handful of theaters this is playing in) as they have just recently released their first film for Netflix, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs.
Initially reported as a series, which has oddly just recently been denied by those involved, it marks the first anthology film by the filmmakers. It’s made up of six stories that take place in the old west.
The first segment is the Buster Scruggs segment, where we are introduced to seemingly friendly Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson), a singing cowboy, who is also an outlaw who leaves bodies practically everywhere he goes. He heads into a small town saloon where things quickly turn sour.
The second segment, titled “Near Algodones,” involves a bank robber (James Franco), who decides to stick up an isolated bank in the middle of nowhere, only for things to quickly turn sour.
The third story is called “Meal Ticket,” and it follows an old, traveling impresario (Liam Neeson) and his talent, a young man with no arms and legs (Harry Melling), who recites classic plays and speeches for the audience. But things turn sour as their audience dwindles over time.
Story four, “All Gold Canyon,” follows an old prospector (Tom Waits), who digs through a valley in search of gold, only for things to quickly turn sour.
The next story, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” follows Alice (Zoe Kazan), a young woman who joins a wagon train heading westward with her brother, only for things to quickly turn sour.
And then, we end on “The Mortal Remains,” a dialogue heavy segment where two bounty hunters (Brendan Gleeson and Jonjo O’Neill) find themselves in conversation with other travelers in a stagecoach, and things quickly take a turn for the weird.
You may noticed a bit of a pattern here. It’s certainly not by accident; if you’re even vaguely familiar with the stylistic choices and ideas often present in films by the Coen Brothers, all those elements are presented here in what I can best described at its utmost purity. The tones of these shorts cover all the tones the Coens have explored from the slapstick comedy of “Buster Scruggs” to the ominous surreality of “Mortal Remains.” Their themes connecting all these films, regardless of tone, bring a sense of bleakness that is also very heavily present here, arguably more so than anything they’ve done before. Death is the thread that strings these shorts together, and the various ways our characters meet it or simply happen upon it within the western setting is equally as entertaining as it is exhausting.
I love the Coen Brothers, to the point where even their weakest film (The Ladykillers) brings me some enjoyment, and my love for their work is almost immediate. I never have to sit with it, or give it a rewatch before I know I’m super into it. Which makes it odd that The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (the film, not the short) left me feeling a bit cold. It’s in no way a subpar film, or even a disappointing one, I was thoroughly entertained pretty much all the way through. However, for some reason or another, I didn’t quite connect with the shorts in the same way I did with most of their films. Perhaps, the anthology storytelling doesn’t quite suit them. As well told as some of these stories are, there is a distinct lack of emotional connection. So, it ended up being no surprise that the short that I liked the most was “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” which is the longest one, and could’ve easily been stretched to feature length. It feels like less of a stylistic exercise compared to some of the other shorts, and feels the most whole. And I liked the other shorts as well, but this is the only one where my engagement didn’t feel so superficial.
So, while it may sound like I’m being harsh, I did end up liking the film quite a bit. It’s simply too well crafted for me to dismiss. With films like No Country For Old Men and their True Grit remake, I think the Coens have realized that the western genre is a perfect setting for their distinctly playful brand of cynicism and deconstructionist tendencies. It’s all captured with stunning digital cinematography, their very first film shot in that format, and it plays into creating this fable-esque atmosphere that the film is building, especially as they each short is introduced by the turn of a page in this old book. It’s shot by Bruno Delbonnel, who did Inside Llewyn Davis, and he brings a very different look, clearly taking the sheen of a digital camera in mind, and using it his advantage. Carter Burwell also provides the score, which does a wonderful job at being distinctive enough for each short, but also flowing from one to the next with ease.
I am a bit saddened that I can’t say I loved The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, perhaps a rewatch is in order, but I still very much admire everything that went into making the film, and it still has the kind of uniquely entertaining experience that only the Coens could provide. The film feels more like a rosetta stone. It’s the movie you watch to get a better understanding of what the Coen Brothers are like as storytellers, in terms of tone and theme, and maybe unlock certain thematic elements of their previous work that you might’ve considered impenetrable. But as just a standalone narrative, I wasn’t quite as emotionally engaged as I usually am. However, that doesn’t stop me from getting excited for whatever they do next, and I hope to see them explore the western genre even more.