The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
What’s the story?: The Coen brothers ode to the Western, an anthology presenting six different stories dealing with life in the cowboy era.
The Galas at this year’s festival are predominantly features receiving their world premieres, like the aforementioned On the Basis of Sex and the biopic, Mary Queen of Scots. The Coen brothers’ latest premiered earlier this year to more muted praise, probably because it’s an anthology film that will debut in full on Netflix.
The Coens love to reminisce on the past, whether it’s their paen to Old Hollywood in Hail, Caesar or their admiration for the 1960s folk music scene in Inside Llewyn Davis. So to say the Coens don’t know their stuff is an understatement. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs looks like a folksy turn on the tropes of the Old West with the Coens’ patented dry and insider humor. If anything, it looks like an expansion of the cowboy sequences they’ve included in Hail, Caesar. The anthology series aspect should do well for those who like to take their time and pause on Netflix.
The cast for this is bananas, to boot: Liam Neeson, Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, Brendan Gleeson, and Tom Waits, to name a few. Get my ten-gallon hat and my six-shoot ready!