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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

USA 2018
produced by
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Megan Ellison, Robert Graf, Sue Naegle, Jillian Longnecker (executive) for Mike Zoss Productions, Annapurna Pictures/Netflix
directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
starring segment The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy, David Krumholtz, Thomas Wingate, Tim DeZarn, E.E. Bell, Alejandro Patiño, Tom Proctor, Clinton Roberts, Matthew Willig, Jesse Youngblood, J.J. Dashnaw; segment Near Algodones: James Franco, Stephen Root, Ralph Ineson, Mike Watson, Brian Brown, Ryan Brown, Richard Bucher, Jesse Luken, Michael Cullen, Austin Rising, James 'Scotty' Augare; segment Meal Ticket: Liam Neeson, Harry Melling, Jiji Hise, Paul Rae; segment All Gold Canyon: Tom Waits, Sam Dillon; segment The Gal Who Got Rattled: Bill Heck, Zoe Kazan, Grainger Hines, Jefferson Mays, Prudence Wright Holmes, Eric Petersen, Doris Hargrave, Jackamoe Buzzell, Ethan Dubin, Jordy Laucomer, Thea Lux, Bret Hughson, Rod Rondeaux, Raymond Kurshals; segment The Mortal Remains: Jonjo O'Neill, Brendan Gleeson, Saul Rubinek, Tyne Daly, Chelcie Ross
written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, segment All Gold Canyon based on a story by Jack London, segment The Gal Who Got Rattled inspired by a story by Stewart Edward White, music by Carter Burwell

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Six stories, all set in the Old West:

  • The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson), a singing cowboy dressed in white, drifts from town to town, always on the look-out for a good poker game. And while he runs into opposition ever so often, he's also a very quick draw, expert marksman, and he always knows how to get out of a sticky situation. But for every quick draw there's always one quicker ...
  • Near Algodones: An outlaw (James Franco) tries to rob a bank in the middle of nowhere, but the bank teller (Stephen Root) has prepared some booby traps, leaving the outlaw gravely wounded. Soon enough he's picked up by a lynch mob who want to hang him on the next tree - but get massacred by a bunch of Comanche Indians before they can finish what they've begun, leaving our hero tied up on his horse with a noose around his neck that's attached to the tree. And the one man (Jesse Luken) who saves him turns out to be a cattle thief who needs the cowboy as baid for a posse to capture him in his stead ...
  • Meal Ticket: An impresario (Liam Neeson) and his limbless actor (Harry Melling) drive their waggon from town to town where the actor performs a long monologue, triyng to capture the audience with a mixtureof good acting and his unusual appearance. But of course, the audience is only interested until the next big thing comes along - like a calculating chicken ...
  • All Gold Canyon: It goes against reason, but an old prospector (Tom Waits) is sure there's gold on a certain patch of land - and if he has to turn the ground upside down - which he pretty much does until he finds an ore. But of course, once there's gold, there's those who want to get their share - and violently so ...
  • The Gal Who Got Rattled: Alice (Zoe Kazan) and her brother Gilbert (Jefferson Mays) have decided to join a treck of settlers to the west, but they've come completely ill-prepared: They have a dog who drives everyone crazy, lack the money to pay the boy who drives their horses ... and then Gilbert dies. One of the guides of the track, Billy (Bill Heck), has pity on Alice though, grows fond of her, and eventually proposes to her - but it seems bad luck follows her whatever she does ...
  • The Mortal Remains: Five people are on a stagecoach riding through the night, two men (Jonjo O'Neill, Brendan Gleeson) who might be bounty hunters or morticians and who carry a corpse with them, an affectionate Frenchman (Saul Rubinek), a grizzled fur trapper (Celcie Ross) and an elderly lady who claims to be a devout Christian (Tyne Daly). The conversation these five are having soon shows that they all have dark secrets, and the creepy hotel they're arriving at might be their final destination ...

Now I do love westerns, and I do love the Coen brothers, who are actually doing a great job here, puttinmg their own stamp on the genre while at the same time respecting its traditions rather than trying a post-modernist approach - and all that said, the film as such is a bit of a mixed kettle of fish, as it fails to fall together as a whole, with the segments being to heterogenous in approach: The titular story pretty much feels like a singing cowboy fan movie and is broad in comedy. Meal Ticket on the other hand simply goes on a bit too long, making the same point over and over again. The Gal Who Got Rattled seems a little under-developed, story-wise, and could have easily been extended into a separate feature film to give the story the right scope and iron out some shortcomings. And The Mortal Remains really feels more like a wraparound story of the old Amicus omnibus movies rather than anything else. So basically what I'm saying is, the whole is less than the sum of its ingredients here, the segments (at least some of them) would have worked better on their own. But as a whole, the thing is well-directed, well-written and well-played - and fun to watch, especially for genre fans of course.

 

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review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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special appearances by
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directed by
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written by
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produced by
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now streaming at

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Robots and rats,
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Tales to Chill
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Tales to Chill
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