The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coen Brothers have a bit of a duel identity. They have their dark dramas (No Country For Old Men, Blood Simple, Inside Llewyn Davis) and their absurdist comedies (The Big Lebowsky, Hail, Caesar!, Burn After Reading). Most of the time I find myself loving the former and disliking the latter, although I do have a soft spot for Raising Arizona. I know this makes me an outcast amongst cinemaphiles who love to fall all over themselves for those comedies, but they just don't speak to me. So I go into each Coen Brothers film with a bit of trepidation. I rarely find myself luke warm to their work. It is usually hit or miss for me.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs creates an interesting dilemma. As an anthology piece (6 short stories, all westerns, put together as one package) Scruggs manages to be a bit of both kinds of Coen movies. It starts out full absurdist with the title piece, a wacky and thankfully brief treatise on overconfidence and judging a book by its cover. By the time it gets through to the end, they have gone much darker, yet with only a tinge of seriousness. Their irreverent voice remains throughout.

So, as I guess is typical in anthology films, Buster Scruggs is a bit of a mixed bag.  Generally I warmed to the stories as they went along. The Coens explore multiple themes but most of Scruggs is about death, and grappling with mortality. They do it mostly with a bit of a wink, a charming embracing of the inevitablness of the subject. And there is something comforting, something romantic about it.

And there is likely something for everyone here. Those who prefer their sillier proclivities will certainly find something here to enjoy while those of us who like their more mature themes will also find something. Each short is short enough that if it isn't your bag it won't be long before the next story.

I do have to comment on how The Ballad of Buster Scruggs suffers from a fairly typical problem with films in the western genre. Scruggs is interested in the story of white settlers only and this limits the scope of the film in a way that doesn't allow it to be something perhaps greater. While the film does find a few moments to tell white women's stories, the film also focuses almost exclusively on white men, using non-white characters solely as devices for the settlers.


The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Brian Gleeson, Saul Rubinek
Writers/Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen