The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Coen Brothers Netflix series turned portmanteau movie

jfc

Do u know what a settler is

apparently not

I thought this was great! I'm surprised so many of yall are down on it. Way, way better than Hail Caesar--low bar, I know

I liked Hail Caesar too :(

I was gonna say!

I liked Hail Caesar a lot but it's one of their four worst

I thought this was great! I'm surprised so many of yall are down on it.

updating this:

summary of opinions expressed so far:

inconsequential
terrible
kind of loved it
love it?
fucking loved it
garbage
fun

so, one can see a consensus starting to emerge here, if one stands across the room, is drunk, and squints very hard

• this is brilliant.
• liked this quite a lot.
• This thread has not yet dampened my anticipation
• I enjoyed all of these, except for Meal Ticket
• I've had the Surly Joe song stuck in my head for the last two days
• brilliant genre satire [...] unnerving meta-commentary [...] varying degrees of good to very good. [...] beautifully shot
• diverting
• this was so good
• I also loved it. Giving owl looks to the haters.
• This is excellent. My fave Cohens since "A Serious Man".
• [1/6th of the film] kind of dragged for me.
• looked good and moved swiftly
• I loved this! [...] a lot of good whistling-past-the-graveyard humor [...] excellent & really well studied. [...] so good
• the use of place was excellent
• (genre "Indians") were dehumanized and demonized perils, existing to drive the plot.
• I've been enjoying them as bleak little Coen-y fables.
• You thought this was great!

I didn't really like the bookending segments, which were too glib and inscrutable*, respectively. Other than that they were all great, particulary the freakshow/prospector/wagon train triptych.

*Glibness and inscrutability being qualities I've forgiven the bros for many times in the past.

the final one scrutes a lot better on second viewing

I liked all of these except the freak show one, which spun its wheels for what seemed like a good ten minutes

...to haunting effect, I felt.

that's fair, it was beautifully shot

i liked the freakshow one mostly because it sparked my curiosity so much with so much unsaid, ie the relationship backstory btw neeson & dudley dursley characters — the nature of his talents & whether he is able to speak conversationally ie is he too afraid of neeson to speak or does he only know these rote speeches & that’s all

etc

I just posted this on fb, but I'll throw it to the wolves here too.

In 'All Gold Canyon,' the stranger/claim jumper who shot Tom Waits' prospector in the back was actually a leprechaun protecting his "pot o' gold," y/n?

He's wearing all green, he's appears out of nowhere, and he doesn't act with any urgency to collect the gold Waits found. He, instead, smokes a cigarette calmly and sits down like "got another one."

Interesting! That was the segment based on a Jack London story (which I haven't read, but now want to) so it'll be interesting (though not necessarily conclusive) to see how that all plays out in the source material.

I didn't bring it up before because my thinking was "oh, that's so obvious that no one's even bothering to talk about it," but then a week went by and no one even mentioned it as even a tossed off theory. So I just watched that segment for the second time and I'm absolutely sure of it.

I know that Jack London story and it is excellent, especially his portrayal of the psychology of the lone prospector and the methodical way he proceeds to work the hillside to locate the pocket.

I just skimmed the text of the Jack London story. They really stuck close to the source material, but I still think they added an extra twist between the lines where they were allowed the room to do so.

uh huh...

Did you rewatch it yet?? You're a hard sell.

i’m all for magical realism but this isn’t that imo

if a leprechaun makes sense to you then ok, you do you, but for me this story is a+ sans lep

i don’t buy that the coens, excellent writers in their own right, would take this dark & simple *jack london* story & say, you know what this needs? a leprechaun.

Are people defending “a meal ticket”? Because that was bottom-barrel for them.

a fucking leprechaun. Words fail me

it is not a leprechaun

hahahaha

sleep, that's where I'm a leprechaun (very crafty and gold-loving, not an actual leprechaun)

“a meal ticket”? Because that was bottom-barrel for them.

bold call for filmmakers that have a remake of The Ladykillers starring Tom Hanks in a facemerkin on their resume, plus Crimewave

Kid was wearing green, hence leprechaun.

leprechauns roll their own

So how do you explain the colorful marshmallows he kept finding in the stream?

...?

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/66e3fc3d-32ef-41b4-9aa3-2852b3c17f19_1.f19a53b164c8a56d749fb11670983422.jpeg

sorry for huge image

Kid was wearing green

Just appeared, and did so immediately after gold had been found.

If it hadn't been a gold story, I probably wouldn't have even thought much about the fact his entire wardrobe was deep, dark green and that his hat was also green with a gold band on it. But it is and those things are.

Anyway, I'm not gonna evangelize about this theory, but the Coens have done FAR cornier things.

FP'd sleeve, Evan, and the USA as a whole

upvoting Johnny Fever because it would be hilarious if true

lol I accept your FP with apologies

I was just being goofy I don’t actually have strong feelings about leprechaun theories

i rest my case

Watched this hungover on the couch the weekend it was released and was consistently surprised, entertained, and depressed. Came away with “Yeah, that was pretty solid.”

But tbh I’ve been thinking about one or more of these stories almost every day since then. It’s haunted me. Need a rewatch, but rolling around in my brain it’s the best thing they’ve done since A Serious Man.

i feel the same way

I wonder if there’s something more intimate and weird (and therefore memorable) about experiencing this Coen movie at home rather than in the cinema

Obvs I don’t think it would’ve made The Ladykillers better. But the combination of big US landscapes + my small TV was unsettling rather than lessening.

loved this

were you guys also bothered by how buster scruggs managed to be such an amazing shot, and how the chicken could do math

i think the chicken did math w/ the bell they'd ring it probably when it was near the right number or something like that - counting animals are all over vaudeville + side show history

1. the gal who got rattled
2. meal ticket
3. the ballad of buster scruggs
4. all gold canyon
5. near algodones
6. the mortal remains

overall thought this was ok. it looked really nice and had some good acting but it didn't really hit me.

this felt so thin and nothingy. some of the photography and scenery was really beautiful, but the stories were really inconsequential

i agree - a few got by on pathos or novelty but the rest felt thin

near algodones felt like they came up with the "first time?" line and worked backwards (though stephen root was funny)

I don't think these were "nothingy" at all. Felt maybe similarly during watching like "just ending with that huh" and then you're right on to the next one, but they sit well in memory and have more meat on their bones than might be immediately apparent.

That guy sure looked like a leprechaun to me

1. Leprechauns are little men. It's kind of their defining characteristic
2. Leprechauns do not wield guns
3. Leprechauns are creatures of Irish myth. Why would you put one in a film dealing with classic Western tropes?