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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

★★½ — The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs arrived as a Netflix original at a curious point in the Coens' career, following the quieter commercial reception of Hail, Caesar! (2016) and representing their first anthology feature, structured across six self-contained Western tales. The project had a long gestation, with the brothers originally developing the material as a television series before reconfiguring it as a feature film for the streaming platform. Adapted loosely from a collection of original stories the Coens wrote themselves, it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Screenplay. Tim Blake Nelson, a Coen regular since O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), leads the opening segment, with the rest of the cast rotating entirely across the six episodes.

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.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-04-10

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Where to watch (UK)

Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK

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