I reckon y’all have heard of the Coen Brothers right? Directors of films you may have seen such as No Country for Old Men and The Big Lebowski? Yeah, well the good ole boys are at it again, with their new Netflix original movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. This near two and a half hour Western is an anthology of short stories ranging from gorey to downright depressing. But the real question is “Does the latest Coen Brothers feature warrant your time and attention?” In short, you’re darn tootin! (Sorry in advance, for all the puns and cowboy slang incoming. I’ve been playing a ton of Red Dead Redemption 2, so for the time being, I reckon you can call me a cowboy now) Anyway, let’s mosey on up to the review.
First and foremost, this film is visually stunning. Maybe it’s the fact that I had the privilege of watching it on a projector, but for a film released on a streaming service that’s likely to be watched either on a computer or a phone, each frame is pretty darn sexy to look at. One of the usual characteristics of the Western genre includes an extreme emphasis on the beauty that is Mother Nature, and Buster Scruggs is indeed no exception. Each shot feels like an appreciation for a long forgotten time before industrialism and busy city landscapes. Whether you end up paying attention to the plot or not, I can’t deny how mesmerizing the cinematography is from top to bottom.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs expands to 6 unrelated short stories that contains a wide array of strange and eccentric characters. Now, to be completely honest here, other than The Big Lebowski, I am not really a fan of how the Coen Brothers write and direct their films. I feel as though the stories they write contain way too many convenient situations, and most of the time, don’t really have any resolutions for the main characters. But when it comes to the narrative structure of this film, I feel that the writing and direction of the Coen Brothers fits perfectly in the anthology format. Rather than drag out the plot with silent moments where characters do nothing meaningful to the story in a span of a two hour narrative, these short stories range from 10 to 30 minutes each and provide most of the protagonists with a convincing and compelling story arc that doesn’t feel like a waste of time at all. I can’t say for certain which one of the short stories were my favorite, but I will say that each one delivers a different tone that will cleanse the palate for those who enjoy both comedic and downright morbid storytelling.
Overall, I would say The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a cinematic experience worth logging onto for two and a half hours. I give it four Horseshoes out of five! Yee-haw! •
