The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
★★½ — The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs arrived in 2018 as something of a curio, even by the standards of Joel and Ethan Coen. Released through Netflix after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion for Best Screenplay, the film takes the form of an anthology Western: six self-contained stories set in the American frontier, framed as chapters from an illustrated book. The premise alone signals that this is not a conventional genre exercise. The Coens had originally conceived the material as a television series before reshaping it into a single feature, and that origin is worth keeping in mind. At 132 minutes, the film has a lot of ground to cover, and the tonal range across its six segments is considerable, swinging from broad slapstick comedy to something approaching genuine melancholy.
The Coens come to the Western with some form, of course. Their 2010 adaptation of True Grit demonstrated a real feel for the period and its moral landscape, and the frontier setting here draws on some of that same dusty, sun-bleached atmosphere. Produced through their own Mike Zoss Productions, Buster Scruggs was shot by regular collaborator Bruno Delbondt, whose eye for wide open spaces and painterly light gives the film a consistently handsome look regardless of what is happening narratively within any given segment. The Coens have worked across genres throughout their career, from the noir of Blood Simple to the screwball absurdism of Raising Arizona, and that range of registers is very much on display here, sometimes within the span of a few minutes.
The ensemble cast is spread across the segments rather than shared between them, which means the film functions less like a traditional ensemble piece and more like a series of short films with different leads. Tim Blake Nelson takes the title role in the opening segment, a sharp-shooting, song-and-dance cowboy who is as good-natured as he is lethal (it is a more peculiar combination than it sounds). Willie Watson, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy, and David Krumholtz each bring their own weight to their respective stories, though the nature of the anthology format means that some performances are granted more room than others. It is the kind of film that asks a lot from its cast in a short space of time, and to their credit, most of the actors make an impression. For fans of the Coens and for those with a soft spot for Westerns like Rio Bravo or The Ox-Bow Incident, the film arrived with a fair amount of anticipation.
An anthology that tries to be quirky but ends up feeling uneven. There are a few solid moments here, sure, but the film is all over the place. The segments feel disconnected, and while some of the visuals are stunning, the storytelling just doesn’t stick. The Surly Joe segment is definitely the standout, with its dark humour and sharp pacing, but the rest of the film either meanders or overstays its welcome. It’s not a bad film by any means, but it lacks the consistency and bite that you’d expect from the Coens. Some segments land, but many just feel like filler. Definitely one for Coen completists, but the casual viewer might find it a bit too uneven to enjoy fully.
That unevenness is, I think, the crux of it. There is real craft on screen throughout, and I would never say the Coens have lost their touch entirely, but an anthology lives or dies by the consistency of its parts, and this one stumbles too often to fully justify its running time. When it works, it really works, but the gaps between those moments are a little too long and a little too frequent. Worth a watch if you are already a Coen devotee, but probably not the first film I would point someone to if they wanted to understand what makes them special. Start with something tighter, then circle back.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-04-10
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Joel Coen: Blood Simple (1984) · True Grit (2010) · Raising Arizona (1987) · Burn After Reading (2008)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More western: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Rio Bravo (1959) · Ride Lonesome (1959) · The Great Train Robbery (1903)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
