The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Netflix | Release Date: November 9, 2018

7.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 330 Ratings

USER RATING DISTRIBUTION

Watch Now

Stream On

Review this movie

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Please sign in or create an account before writing a review.

Check box if your review contains spoilers

0 characters (5000 max)

User Reviews

User score By date Most helpful

Codemonkey1991Feb 16, 2019

I have to believe most of the reviews here were written based only on the trailer.

The trailer contained every witty, light-hearted moment in the movie. The remaining 95% of it was just boring and intensely depressing. If you enjoy watchingI have to believe most of the reviews here were written based only on the trailer.

The trailer contained every witty, light-hearted moment in the movie. The remaining 95% of it was just boring and intensely depressing. If you enjoy watching awful **** happening to innocent/good people over and over with sad endings (like gruesome murder), you might enjoy this movie.

I honestly can't belive anybody would enjoy watching this.

The cinematography raises it from 0 to 2.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

All this user's reviews

JennyKat570Nov 26, 2018

I was excited for this after the Coens' excellent True Grit, but it came as a huge disappointment. These are the problems:

- Like a lot of Netflix original content, it looked and felt cheap. It tries to come out strong with a fairlyI was excited for this after the Coens' excellent True Grit, but it came as a huge disappointment. These are the problems:

- Like a lot of Netflix original content, it looked and felt cheap. It tries to come out strong with a fairly action-packed initial story, but that can't cover for the penny pinching that gradually creeps in, like long stretches that take place in a single location, or long stretches with minimal dialogue (which requires fewer takes to shoot). I wasn't surprised to learn this was initial planned as a TV show, it has a very TV-grade feel to it (though TBH even Netflix's shows look cheap compared to other studios').

- It doesn't ever make a good case for why it exists, other than to let the Coens do their usual (and rather tired) black comedy/satire/melodrama shtick. Netflix is clearly hoping that the Coen name and a few A-list actors (who mostly have minor roles with minimal dialogue) will singlehandedly sell the movie, but that's not how this works. If this were a Wes Anderson movie it would be The Darjeeling Limited.

- As others have noted, it is slow, dull, and full of the usual cliched, portentous, and sophomoric "meditations on life and death" (ugh) typical of postmodern Westerns. Most of the stories coast by on absurdist novelty without emotionally engaging the audience; the one exception is "The Girl Who Got Rattled", which is easily the best part of the movie and the only part that actually succeeds at the basics of storytelling.

- It's a bit tough to criticize the plot or characters because there almost weren't any. The vignettes are supposed to make you feel amused or somber for a few seconds, then to be forgotten forever as the next one queues up. In that sense I guess it really is a true-blue Netflix product, given how much they promote binge watching of trashy content.… Expand

7 of 15 users found this helpful78

All this user's reviews

hnestlyontheslyOct 12, 2019

Netflix’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is probably only for Coen Brother completionists. The formal structure organizing these short stories is to be expected, but still feels fresh and innovative. The stories and actors themselves tellNetflix’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is probably only for Coen Brother completionists. The formal structure organizing these short stories is to be expected, but still feels fresh and innovative. The stories and actors themselves tell genre-busting tales of varying lengths, which in and of itself is a cool challenge to expectations, in the same vein as Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets. But not all of the stories are constructed with the same care and skill, leaving the overall effect a somewhat uneven ensemble cast of cameos that deserves to be watched as an afterthought on your laptop after escaping yet another holiday party but not so much on the big screen.

I never thought that I would root for an old prospector as he goes through the grueling process of panning for gold, but the objective frame for that story created a hero out of hard work. Magical realism abounds in the opening story of a bard-outlaw, and Zoe Kazan delivers an excellent, muted performance as the film’s only woman protagonist.
Image result for ballad of buster

The weaker stories seem self-evidently conscious of their mediocrity and preemptively invite apologetics, but their failings are cliché by now. James Franco (the worst of the Franco brothers–Dave, you are my spirit animal) gives an appropriately creepy performance to a morally intellectually bankrupt story in the second slot. Liam Neeson and Harry Melling (the Dursley boy of HP fame) either tell a twee story about the savagery of the theater and whimsy of public opinion or they impersonate a person with a physical disability and then throw him over a bridge in lieu of an actual ending.

If there is a connective tissue to these stories, it seems like it might be the mundanity of evil, but giving directorial side eye to the ethics of your own story is not the same thing as telling a story that challenges those evil outcomes, and I think that’s at the crux of my criticism with some of the endings in this collection, which sounds like a narrow point, I know, but actually has some big implications for the choices that could have been made.

Franco, Neeson, and Kazan’s stories all have essentially the same easy outcome and they arrive at that point because the stories paint themselves into a corner, where more interesting, open-ended avenues existed. Why do we need to see the cart at the end with only the chicken in its cage? Why not before? Why the suicide-as-plot when so much of the lead up is about the drama of her decisions, her future, and not that of Billy? Why the vacuous mooning? Why the rushed unfortunate turn? Death is still a viable ending, as “The Ballad” shows in the first story, but it’s not the only way.

For those looking for the high water mark of short stories done well on the big screen, check out 2014’s Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales), but The Ballad of Buster Scruggs went straight to streaming for a reason, and that reasoning is still not an entirely vetted path to success.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

All this user's reviews

DesireMercyOct 12, 2022

The Ballad of Buster Schruggs is an anthology of awful. While the setting and lives of the characters are captivating, the events which unfold are one decidedly and deliberate series of shockingly gory, degenerate, and depraved. While theThe Ballad of Buster Schruggs is an anthology of awful. While the setting and lives of the characters are captivating, the events which unfold are one decidedly and deliberate series of shockingly gory, degenerate, and depraved. While the West certainly wasn't free from its share of hardship, evil, and unfortunate events, the Ballad of Buster Schruggs goes out of its way to compensate for poor storytelling with gut wrenching shock of watching people do terrible things to other people. And that can be the summary of the entire movie: stylized representation of people doing horrible things to other people. What could have been a thought-provoking and unique dive into the lore and lives of the characters of the west is supplanted by writers who seem to have no other means of leaving an impact other than brutal and graphic deaths of characters.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

All this user's reviews

pleitchMay 26, 2022

Generally bad but it does get worse as you watch.

At no point do you feel good for watching these stories. It's like taking every key part of all westerns and ruining them. This seems to be an unpopular opinion. I don't know if it's becauseGenerally bad but it does get worse as you watch.

At no point do you feel good for watching these stories. It's like taking every key part of all westerns and ruining them.

This seems to be an unpopular opinion. I don't know if it's because I've seen actual westerns, whether I've seen good movies or maybe just taste.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

All this user's reviews