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Ballad of Buster Scruggs, 2018
In this collection of six short stories set in the wild west, various characters try to survive and thrive in the hostile frontier. The stories follow a gunslinging singer, an outmatched bank robber, a struggling two-person theater troupe, an old man hunting for gold, a young woman on an Oregon-bound wagon train, and strange mix of travelers in a stagecoach.
This film is a darkly comic mix of largely bleak stories that for the most part does a good job of balancing the grim reality of frontier life with a sense of humor. The sharp writing is well matched by a deep and talented cast.
Tim Blake Nelson starts things off on a high note as the titular Buster Scruggs, a man whose cheery mannerisms belie his deadliness with a six shooter. The segment is over-the-top in its staging, bordering on cartoonish as it goes along.
I thought that the best developed segment was probably "The Gal Who Got Rattled" in which Zoe Kazan plays a young woman who is left to fend for herself on a wagon train heading toward Oregon. She befriends a man (Bill Heck) on the train, but circumstances conspire against their happiness.
Other standouts in the film are Brendan Gleeson and Jonjo O'Neill as a pair of strange bounty hunters and Tom Waits as a man hunting for gold in a beautiful valley.
The film does definitely suffer from a lack of a range of points of view. All of the protagonists are white, and there are only two named women characters. There are indigenous characters, but they play the same role each time they appear, namely to show up and brutally massacre people.
A very entertaining film with an excellent cast.
Ballad of Buster Scruggs, 2018
In this collection of six short stories set in the wild west, various characters try to survive and thrive in the hostile frontier. The stories follow a gunslinging singer, an outmatched bank robber, a struggling two-person theater troupe, an old man hunting for gold, a young woman on an Oregon-bound wagon train, and strange mix of travelers in a stagecoach.
This film is a darkly comic mix of largely bleak stories that for the most part does a good job of balancing the grim reality of frontier life with a sense of humor. The sharp writing is well matched by a deep and talented cast.
Tim Blake Nelson starts things off on a high note as the titular Buster Scruggs, a man whose cheery mannerisms belie his deadliness with a six shooter. The segment is over-the-top in its staging, bordering on cartoonish as it goes along.
I thought that the best developed segment was probably "The Gal Who Got Rattled" in which Zoe Kazan plays a young woman who is left to fend for herself on a wagon train heading toward Oregon. She befriends a man (Bill Heck) on the train, but circumstances conspire against their happiness.
Other standouts in the film are Brendan Gleeson and Jonjo O'Neill as a pair of strange bounty hunters and Tom Waits as a man hunting for gold in a beautiful valley.
The film does definitely suffer from a lack of a range of points of view. All of the protagonists are white, and there are only two named women characters. There are indigenous characters, but they play the same role each time they appear, namely to show up and brutally massacre people.
A very entertaining film with an excellent cast.