La balada de Buster Scruggs

Very weak Coens, hopefully they pick the weaker moment for the future. The stories are completely without a twist, there is only the adorable finger-shooting in the first one, the beautiful scenery in the one with the charismatic vagabond Watts, and here and there a typical Coen joke, but there are so few of them that they could be counted on the fingers of one hand of a sawmill worker. What I admire most about the Coens is the biting, caustic, ironic humour, which here is almost non-existent. Then the fifth and longest story is almost unbearable, it doesn't go anywhere, it's just such a cry into the wind and I have to repeat it again, without a single twist. (30.12.2018)

The Coen brothers have always had their own specific approach to storytelling and this short-story western is no different. The beginning, for instance, is an exemplary bliss. Buster Scruggs is a character you simply have to love because the things he does in the first short story are simply badass. Coupled with the specific direction style of the Coen brothers, it’s the bomb. But then the first story ends, the second one starts and things get incredibly boring. The stories don’t follow up on one another and there aren’t any great endings that could attract your attention… the stories simply flow and the original excitement about the director’s ideas gradually fades and all you are left with is Buster Scruggs himself. (28.02.2019)

Buster Scruggs had a good line of sight, but the Coen’s were sprinkling targets with very variable success. Most of the bullets ended up in the prairie. A disparate, unbalanced anthology that is meant to recall the romantic charm of westerns and the West, which has never been. Instead, it reminds us that the Coen’s are no longer masters of tonal equilibristics, eccentric dialogues and brilliant points. This film plays more on sentiment rather than skillfully creating it. Some short stories (trunk, gold digger) are downright awful and out of rhythm. Even though the moods change here, the overall impression is insanely monotonous, also because the Coen’s only vary safely. In the end, I remember with love the demented version of Lemonade Joe, the hangman blues of James Franco and the dog ballad... the rest is not even worth a spit into the dust. (25.11.2018)

The Coens may have a lot of filmmaking years under their belt, but reviving a half-dead genre and enriching it with a short story style is a very good idea and definitely makes for good entertainment. The first two stories are absolute carnage and the best of the western genre of the last ten years, with no sparing of black-sarcastic humour and a decent dose of violence, so I think it's a great pity that the remaining four short stories are much slower (I'd skip the third and sixth altogether). The fourth one impresses with the idea, the setting and the surprising finale, and the fifth one has a slower pace, but the action-packed ending is satisfying enough including an unexpected twist. Overall, then, I'm satisfied, it's playful, absurd, gritty, funny and smart enough to keep the viewer's attention, but if the whole film had stuck to the opening two stories, we'd be talking about the best film of the year. 70% (27.11.2018)

I had to strain to think back to a time when the Coen brothers last spoke to me so strongly, and the best I could do was No Country for Old Men. Even the related genre film True Grit was not as complex and did not cover as many subgenres as this one does. I am most grateful that from the very beginning this was a film and not a series, as originally rumored in the media, before the creators themselves shut down such rumors. This is exactly how, in seemingly unrelated stories bound by death, two hours, and a formal reading from a book, it clearly resonates how cruel, hopeless, and infinitely romantic life in the Wild West must have been. (24.10.2019)

Great. It seems to me, according to the feedback from the world and the database here, that the Coens have been making films mostly for themselves and me in recent years. But why would I mind that? Every short story was something different, and each was great. There was typical humor in unpredictable situations as well as melancholy thinking about people and about life, and I certainly don't agree that the short stories didn't have points, because they did. Just maybe they weren't as evident and literal as people would have liked. Yes, I thought that the gold-digger story with Tom Waits would be the last and that it would be a beautiful ending, but then, after it ended, the next one started and then came the last one (typical Coen anecdote), and I certainly didn't mind. (10.12.2018)

El western de historias cortas de los hermanos Coen ofrece seis segmentos no relacionados entre sí, cada uno de los cuales merece la pena ser mencionado, pero los saltos malhumorados entre ellos pueden ser un poco desconcertantes (al igual que la cámara digital, a la que cuesta acostumbrarse). Sin embargo, para tomarlo desde el principio, La balada de Buster Scruggs: Una disparatada y sorprendentemente sangrienta comedia con un pistolero cantante (Tim Blake Nelson) que entretiene con un humor brutal y gags y canciones bien escritas por el protagonista. Pasa quizás demasiado rápido, un 70%. Near Algodones: James Franco como matón-ladrón, cuya huida cómica de la soga hubiera disfrutado en una comedia de largo aliento con una trama más compleja. El empleado de banca adornado con pan es lo mejor del episodio, un 70%. Meal Ticket: Es una pena, y un poco chocante, que con las dos primeras historias cortas los Coen hayan ordeñado al público en busca de humor y luego, sin avisar, hayan amontonado un drama bastante deprimente y sin alegría que puede leerse como una metáfora de la muerte del verdadero arte y su sustitución por la charlatanería barata que se vende mejor. Interesante, pero bastante repetitivo en algunos momentos y el humor no encaja para nada con el resto de la película, un 50%. All Gold Canyon: Una sencilla pero sentida historia de una buscadora de oro, que se apoya en la actuación de un barbudo Tom Waits y en un bello entorno natural. Puedes oler a Jack London por todas partes, un 65%. The Gal Who Got Rattled: Me atrevo a decir que es el segmento más interesante y fresco como historia. Comienza lentamente y crea una larga exposición de personajes, pero al final realmente impresiona, tiene una de los pocas conclusiones inesperadas. Un 75%. The Mortal Remains: Para terminar una conversación filosófica. Sobre el papel, puede parecer el mejor final posible, pero siendo realistas cansa bastante al espectador. Me decepcionó bastante un Brendan Gleeson poco aprovechado, un 55%. En general dos horas agradables y ciertamente no fueron una decepción (como el anterior trabajo de los hermanos Coen, ¡Ave, César!). Habría salido mucho mejor si lo cómico de los dos primeros segmentos se hubiera mantenido durante toda la película. (29.11.2018)

The idea of short western stories by the Coen brothers with a great cast seemed very appealing to me, but the result didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The extensive runtime and weird endings without much of a point didn’t help either. I’m not going to pretend I didn't have fun. I enjoyed some of the stories a lot, others considerably less. Anyway, I'm glad I saw the film, but it isn’t worth more than a slightly above-average score. /"First time?"/ 3*+ (17.08.2020)