The Pitch: A bunch of small ideas for Wild West
stories that would work perfectly for a TV series anthology movie.
One of my rules of thumb is that you need to see a Coen brothers movie twice before you can judge it with any clarity. The first time is to watch it as the movie you think it is. The second is to watch it for what it is. If you watch Hail, Caesar! once, it's a hectic comedy about Hollywood in the 50s that doesn't really go anywhere. If you watch it a second time, it's a pretty hilarious love letter to the Golden Age of the studio system and all the absurdities around it. One viewing of Inside Llewyn Davis is the misadventures of a self-destructive musician. A second viewing reveals a quest to fight the inevitable, when the only thing you love doesn't love you back. The ends of No Country for Old Men and Fargo were too abrupt and dark for me the first time I saw them. Knowing that going in the second time, I could appreciate the brilliant acting, rising tension (more No Country for Old Men), and humor (more Fargo) in them.
When I saw The
Ballad of Buster Scruggs shortly after it premiered on Netflix, I decided I
should take advantage of this special opportunity and watch it again before
attempting to write about it. Naturally, this is the first case of a Coen
brothers movie not gaining new meaning with a sophomore viewing.
That isn't
intended as a slight either. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology film
consisting six tales with almost no overlap. It's presented as stories from a
book of Wild West tales - like an Aesop's Fables of the Old West. The chapters
are all self-contained and with all of them being so short, there isn't enough
time for the kind of diversions that distract me in most of the Coens' movies.
Before I get into my overall thoughts of the anthology structure, I'd like to
talk about the different stories separately.
The Ballad of
Buster Scruggs
This is what we
call a "tone setter". It's silly. It's dark. It's very
"Coens". Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs directly addresses the
audience. He's sort of supernatural and the most likable scumbag you'll ever
meet. He's living it up as the cartoon ideal of the cowboy...until he's not.
Near Algodones
This is the James
Franco one that I've heard a lot of people are low on. He plays a cowboy
with the world's best and worst luck. It starts when he tries to rob a remote
bank run by Stephen Root playing a very Stephen Root weirdo character. We
follow the peaks and valleys of a rough couple days for Franco and find out
when his luck is going to run out. I'm not sure what the point of it was, but I
liked it.
Meal Ticket
A young man with
no arms or legs (played by Harry Melling - aka Dudley Dursley from Harry
Potter) makes a living as a traveling orator. He's taken care of by an impresario
played by Liam Nesson. Melling gets a firsthand lesson in the callousness of
show business as his high-minded act loses its audience to more base
attractions. It's not hard to read into the message of that one.
All Gold Canyon
An old prospector
played by Tom Waites meticulously digs and scouts for gold. This one is largely
wordless and spends a long time showing the process of prospecting. I'm a sucker for stuff
like that. I like seeing people put in the work and be good at what they do.
This is one of the purest distillations of that. The lesson of this one, I
guess, is that life's not always fair. If I have a favorite story, it's probably
this one.
The Gal Who Got
Rattled
A young woman (Zoe
Kazan) runs into a collection of misfortunes while in a wagon train to Oregon
and could get bailed out by one of the men guiding the train, just as long as her
brother's dog doesn't mess it all up. Of the six, this is the story most
capable of sustaining an entire film. Of course, that film would be called
Meek's Cutoff. That movie already exists and also stars Zoe Kazan. I sure hope she
doesn't get typecast as a wild west wagon lady. I like the placement of this
chapter because it has the most traditionally exciting climax and takes place
where the climax would be in normal feature film.
The Mortal Remains
This is a fairly
claustrophobic story of five strangers on a stagecoach on a ride to Ft. Morgan.
Almost the whole thing takes place on the stagecoach and at night. All the
travelers get a chance to monologue about philosophy and life. Three of the travelers are rattled when they learn of the profession and purpose of the
other two and start to question their destination. This is the least clear of
the stories. Or perhaps it's perfectly clear and I'm looking for it to be more
complex. It was a fitting note to end on, but my confusion about its purpose
left me lower on the movie than any of the others.
For me, the movie
is limited by the anthology format. When I think back to my favorite anthologies,
they rely on one of two things (if not both) to be great. One is they way they tie together
to make a larger whole. For example, Trick r' Treat builds a sense of place by
the way it weaves everything together to feel like one Halloween in one town,
or Southbound makes the story circular to feel like you are trapped. The second
thing is that anthologies allow vastly different voices to take part on the
same project. For example, the reason I love the V/H/S movies isn't that all
the stories are perfect. It's because I didn't know what to expect in any
segment. One could be as small as a feuding couple. The next could be about
the end of the world.
Buster Scruggs
lacks those two things. The book framing device neatly separates things, but it
hardly ties things together thematically. And, while there is variation in the
six segments, they are all undeniably Coen brothers movies. Despite my
efforts, Buster Scruggs feels like six uniformly good, uniformly themed Coen
brothers short films. I really enjoyed the movie. It just fell short of my very
lofty hopes. How does the saying go? Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss,
you'll land among the stars. It's a dumb saying, but it does explain my verdict
for the movie despite my disappointment.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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