The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

A collection of six unrelated Western stories, presented as a “reading” of an anthology book. There’s a variety of different themes and tones to the parts, but most of them are “dark comedy” to an extent. Although probably not a major Coen brothers’ work, it is entertaining and worthwhile watching.

Personally I enjoyed the first couple of segments the most, mostly because they were the lightest in tone. The first deals with a happy-go-luck singing cowboy who inhabits a surprisingly gritty “modern western” world, while the second is about an unsuccessful bank-robber and his attempt to flee justice.

I was less keen on the two middle segments, concerning a frontier impresario (Liam Neeson) and his amputee actor, then a gold prospector played by Tom Waits. In both cases they’re effective mood pieces, and the latter especially was beautifully shot, but the I felt the story was a little slight to justify their length. That said, neither segment is long enough for this to really be a problem – I did enjoy them, but they weren’t my favourite parts of the film.

The fifth segment “The Girl Who Got Rattled” is a relatively straight-forward tentative frontier love-story, and probably the only part that isn’t really dark comedy. The final segment is a relatively short “meta-commentary” on story-telling, set entirely within the confines of a stagecoach.

In my view most Western fans will find something to enjoy here.