The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coens are in inspired form with this macabre, gonzo Western that is half-fish, half-fowl and altogether inspired, with formal ingenuity and surgical control of tone. The critic singles out the dazzling mosey through the Coenesque, including the gonzo send-up of the singing cowboy genre and the formal presentation as chapters of a book.

The critic finds the anthology a marvelous and disquieting work full of exquisite detail and a bewitching sense of the Coens' multi-level playfulness. He singles out the vivid performances, Carter Burwell's score, and the way the stories circle around the inevitability of death.

The critic sees the anthology as an eclectic tribute to the flexible storytelling modes of the Old West, with the Coens delighting in comic vignettes, grim irony, gallows humour and Gothic tales. It showcases the brothers in all their guises, from playful to profound, while celebrating American foundation myths.

The critic describes it as an exemplary political film built from giddy Western revisionism that exposes cruelty and unchecked power through clever twists. He singles out the philosophical bent and the way the episodes expand the genre into the absolute, especially the final metaphysical coach journey.

The critic calls the Coens' anthology a six-part love letter to the Hollywood Western, visualized as a cloth-bound storybook with vivid illustrations, full of subversion, parody and offbeat humour across its segments. There isn't really a weak link, though 'Meal Ticket' may test patience; the film spans the mythic West's visual flavours with warmth and humanity amid the playfulness, reminding viewers the genre still has life in it.

The Coens deliver a hilarious, beautifully made, very enjoyable and rather disturbing anthology of old-west stories that switch from picturesque sentimentality to grisly violence. The critic singles out the polished performances, especially Tim Blake Nelson as the roistering Buster and the handsomely made picture with Carter Burwell’s score.

The critic finds the anthology's six tales of flawed, often pathetic characters accumulate into a stronger, stranger, and sadder unified work that reflects moral deficiency and spiritual waywardness. They single out the strong ensemble performances and visual pleasures alongside the Coens' signature existential melancholy.

The critic calls it the crowning achievement of the Coens’ career and their personal ode to the Old West, praising the staggering artistic scope, narrative sweep, and vivid evocation of America’s dreams and contradictions. It is by turns darkly comic and deeply moving, with striking images and economy of storytelling.

The critic praises the elegant anthology for celebrating celluloid cowboys of varying stripe and flitting masterfully from jet-black drama to sentimentality and savagery while keeping a tight rein on surprising narratives. It is a heartfelt love poem to the Wild West with remarkable performances and a rich understanding of the genre.

The review calls the film one of the darkest yet silliest Coen movies, swerving deftly between goofy and ghastly while treating genre as a playroom. The critic praises its haunting quality and the way its morbid jokes function as existential riddles.

The Coens have patched together a crazy, colourful quilt of the American hinterland in this merry, morbid anthology of campfire tales about the American West. The critic singles out death as the linchpin of the strangely memorable portmanteau movie, with stories that layer pathos with cruelty and move from burlesque beginnings to mortal longings.

The review finds the six darkly comic mini-Westerns richly entertaining and blackly funny yet told with sincerity and heart, with the Coens firing barely a dud. It praises the mini-masterclasses in economy and style, glorious cinematography, and the case made for short-form storytelling.

The delightfully protean Western anthology presents every variation of the Coen brothers, united by excitement about truncated narratives and playful discovery. It plays with Western tropes as springboards for clever twists and is at its best when entering existential terrain, though some chapters are stronger than others.

The critic calls it a grimly comic anthology that offers six Coen horse operas, varying in quality but held together by craftsmanship and a withering worldview. They single out the first segment’s savagely funny vaudeville musical violence as the broadest and most memorable.

The review describes the film as a messy collage of the Coens’ best motifs that has some wonderful moments even as it drags. The critic highlights the anthology format’s uneven pacing and occasional strong individual segments.

The review presents the film as an anthology of uneven segments that works like a small-plate feast, with some delicious and others less memorable. The critic singles out the first Buster Scruggs episode and the final stagecoach story for their strong performances and comic subversion of Western tropes.

The review sees the anthology as a Coen trifle that justifies itself through majestic imagery and a scabrous obsession with death, though the episodes are uneven. The critic singles out the opening title segment as an original cowboy splatter musical and notes the final coach episode for its grim, funny metaphysical turn.

The critic finds the Coen brothers' Western anthology uneven and minor, playing like a vaudeville show of sketches with drastically differing quality. They single out the technical craft, particularly Bruno Delbonnel’s rapturous cinematography and the detailed production design.

The critic finds the anthology silly and mood-shifting yet inchoate and perfunctory, with the Coens at their most misanthropic. They single out the lack of deeper insinuation and the predictability that saps profundity, though noting some uproarious moments in the opening segment.

The film serves as a solid introduction to the Coens' recurring themes and moral philosophy through its anthology structure, even if it is unlikely to be anyone's favorite of their works or the first one they recommend. The critic singles out the anthology format for making the grim and unforgiving worldview clear across varied segments that remain gripping without overstaying their welcome.

The critic views the film as a greatest-hits-style showcase of the Coens' tonal mastery across six stories, praising the expert wielding of mood, ironic twists, strong performances (notably Tim Blake Nelson and Zoe Kazan), and overall pleasure in watching the brothers at work.

The Western anthology collapses the gap between the Coens' funny and serious films by confronting mortality across its stories in a way that puts the sting back into death. The critic singles out the conceptual strength of the page-turning structure for numbing, distancing, and then resensitizing viewers to dread and loss, along with standout segments like the opening and "Meal Ticket."

The anthology grapples with the Western genre's history and the Coens' own career while delivering moments of entertainment amid dread, making it one of their funniest yet hauntingly pessimistic films in years. The critic singles out the reflexive commentary on cinema, violence, and existence for praise but notes issues with the retrograde framing of Native Americans.

The six-part anthology has its highs and lows but is hardly ever boring and remains a suitably Coenesque jaunt through the Old West. The critic singles out the strong opening segments featuring Tim Blake Nelson and Tom Waits for praise while noting diminishing returns in the later ones, yet highlights the impeccable cast, photography, and scoring as making it worth watching.

The review calls the anthology wildly uneven with standout funny and offbeat segments alongside weaker ones, praising individual performances and moments (especially the first and fourth stories) but criticizing the lack of connective tissue and overall minor status in the Coens' canon.

The critic finds the Coen brothers' Western anthology an entertaining but uneven Netflix binge that peaks early with its opening segment. They single out the self-reflexive, absurdist, witty and outrageous quality of the Tim Blake Nelson opener for praise while noting the rest struggles to match its energy.

The critic notes the anthology features real gems alongside some fool's gold, with the strongest segments being the title story and 'The Gal Who Got Rattled,' but it never quite overcomes the strength of the opener. They single out the gorgeous cinematography, westward wit, and fantastic acting as consistent strengths.

The critic finds the anthology a mixed bag of Coen-esque quirk and morbid humor that doesn't fully cohere, praising the visually resplendent production design, droll wordplay, and strong opening segment while noting uneven tales and a lack of fresh perspective on the Western landscape.