Review #1,424: 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' (2018)

The Coen brothers have long weaved their love of the western genre into their movies, whether it be capturing its core essence with the likes of Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, or tackling the genre head-on with No Country for Old Men and True Grit. Their latest, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which makes its way onto Netflix after a limited theatrical release, sees the siblings hark back to the horse operas of old. Initially marked as an anthology series, it soon evolved into a feature of six unrelated stories, bound together only by the imaginary pages of the short-story book we as the viewer are supposed to be reading. The final product suffers from the same problems faced by any film attempting the portmanteau format - a couple are great, some are either frustratingly short or unnecessarily drawn-out, and at least one you'll be struggling to remember after the credits have rolled.

There's also the feeling that Buster Scruggs blows its load far too early, as the titular Ballad, featuring one of Tim Blake Nelson's best performances, struts into town on the back of a horse carrying the smoothest country singer and deadliest gunslinger in the West, and knocks it out of the park. It's a bizarre little tale that mixes the yodell-y crooning of those white hat vs. black hat genre pictures of old with bursts of the ironic, darkly humorous violence the Coens are so well known for. The tunes are wonderful, the cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel) is ingeniously inventive (watch out for that shot from inside the guitar), and Nelson is a lively narrator. It ends too soon, and you can't help but think that a standalone feature for the sharply-dressed Buster Scruggs may have been warranted instead. The next story, Near Algodones, sees James Franco's roaming thief hold up the wrong bank and come under fire from the gun-toting teller, played by Stephen Root. It's supposed to be a funny tale of irony and karma, but ultimately feels like an afterthought in the wake of Scruggs' more well-rounded story.

Meal Ticket is more sombre in tone, following opportunistic impresario Harrison (Liam Neeson) and his performer, the legless and armless Artist, who is played with great poise by Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter films). There is a great idea here, one fraught with tragedy and sorrow, but it simply doesn't have enough time to fully develop its ideas. Slotting nicely alongside Buster Scruggs as a stand-out piece is All Gold Canyon, in which Tom Waits' grizzled prospector digs for gold in an untouched valley. It's like the opening scene of There Will Be Blood, only this also has a nice surprise in store as the weather-beaten old man searches for 'Mr. Pocket', the place in the ground holding his grand prize. The remaining two stories, The Gal Who Got Rattled and The Mortal Remains, touch on romance and horror elements, as the characters are transported by wagon train and stagecoach, respectively, to the destination that may or may not await them. They round off a mish-mash of tones and themes, and although they each have individual merits, they simply don't gel together or flow naturally. Fans will no doubt find some wonderful stuff here, as I did, but recommended only for Nelson and Waits, whose stories are up there with some of the Coens' very best.


Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Harry Melling, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Bill Heck, Tyne Daly, Brendan Gleeson, Jonjo O'Neill
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,037: 'Hail, Caesar!' (2016)

When a film-maker builds up such a formidable body of work, it's all the more crushing when their next project falls somewhat flat. The Coen brothers Joel and Ethan have been churning out genre-bending masterpieces ever since 1984 with Blood Simple, and maintained a healthy independent spirit until they were eventually noticed by mainstream Hollywood with 1996's Fargo. Ever since, despite still serving up great work such as No Country for Old Men (2007) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), their filmography has been occasionally blighted by bewildering misfires such as the double-whammy of Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and The Ladykillers (2004). Sadly, they've done it again with Hail, Caesar!.

It's obvious that the Coens hold a keen interest in the old Hollywood system of the 1940's and 50's. They were satirising the world they view with a certain curiosity and perhaps a little disdain back in 1991 with the outstanding Barton Fink. Yet while that film portrayed a bleak, subdued world full of madness and loneliness as John Turturro's titular script-writer struggled with his work and his own demons, Hail, Caesar! is the glitzy, garish world of big-budget biblical epics and movie stars with everything to hide. Studio head Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is the man to try and hold it all together, from having to shield his actors' shady pasts from pesky twin journalists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both Tilda Swinton) to handling an organisation of academic-type communists who have kidnapped his biggest star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).

Working almost like a series of loosely-connected vignettes, the Coens also weave numerous sub-plots into the mix. Mannix must also deal with the issue that one of his leading ladies, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johnansson) is unmarried but with child and can no longer fit into her mermaid costume. Singing cowboy actor Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich), a pretty face more accustomed to strumming the guitar and riding horseback, is thrown into a drama role at the last minute, much to the frustration of sophisticated director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). There are smaller roles also for Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand and Jonah Hill in what is an unnecessarily bulky ensemble that the Coens struggle to keep a grasp of. With no real sense of direction, Hail, Caesar! often feels like a collection of clips from separate, better movies.

Despite the narrative flaws, there's still plenty to savour. Those distinctly 'Coen-eque' moments are peppered throughout, with Hobie's awkward first day on set and Channing Tatum's musical tap-dance being particular standouts. Although Brolin excels and Clooney makes for a very convincing wimp, Ehrenreich is the one who steals the movie as the extremely likeable dimwit who may actually be the only one paying attention. He demonstrates great comic timing and all the charm of the western idols his character is paying homage to, and he seems the perfect fit for a young Han Solo in Disney's as-yet untitled origin story. The film may have even worked better as a whole with Hobie as the lead and doing away with several side-stories. Instead, it is an unfocused splurge of good ideas rather toothlessly executed but wonderfully performed. Definitely lower-league Coen.


Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill
Country: UK/USA/Japan

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #726: 'Inside Llewyn Davis' (2013)

Looking like a Bob Dylan record cover come to life, Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers' first film since 2010's True Grit, takes place on the wintry streets of 1961 Greenwich Village in New York. We follow it's lead character, Llewyn (Oscar Isaac), a talented but struggling folk singer crashing from couch to couch, trying desperately and comically to hold his life together and come through what was one of the most exciting times for folk singers - this was the year Bob Dylan broke out of the scene. The film, like Llewyn, wanders sporadically, seemingly without direction, but this is the Coen's finest work in years.

The Coen's have always been cruel - be it shooting Brad Pitt's loveable idiot in the face in Burn After Reading (2008) or needlessly killing Donnie in The Big Lebowski (1998) - and here they revel in beating down its protagonist. But they have a lot of sympathy for him also - when he's beaten up in the alleyway by a shadowy stranger, we know he deserves it, but feel sorry all the same. And it's the same attitude they have with the subject matter. Although they often poke fun at the free-spirited melancholia of it all, they have a lot of love for the music. Long-time collaborator T-Bone Burnett provides the tunes, and it's a great soundtrack. Most impressively, the cast perform live on set, and Oscar Isaac manages to belt out a beautiful opener in Dave van Ronk's Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (the film is loosely based on van Ronk's memoirs).

It's often difficult to work out what kind of film it is. It shifts between being a drama about an artist struggling to make an impact, a sombre look at what life was like as a folk musician in the early 60's, a Kafkaesque comedy with a tragic anti-hero at its heart, and a dark, somewhat mystical odyssey. Like the Coens' earlier film, A Serious Man (2009), it keeps the audience at arms length. But as brilliant as that film was, Inside Llewyn Davis is a more mature take, creating an altogether warmer film, offering throwaway, laugh-out-loud moments such as Llewyn's recording with fellow artists Jim (Justin Timberlake), a marketable, likeable sort of guy, and Al Cody (Adam Driver), whose performance during Please, Mr Kennedy steals the entire damn film.

As the film progresses, and Llewyn finds out Jim's girlfriend and performing partner Jean (Carey Mulligan) is pregnant, possibly with his child, and after he embarks on a doomed road trip with heroin-addled jazz musician Roland Turner (John Goodman) and chain-smoking Beat poet Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund), it becomes clear what the film is really about. The final scene will leave some people scratching their heads, but I believe it signifies the point in all our lives when we look at our own existence and contemplate the meaning of it, often coming to no conclusion. This is beautiful, thoughtful, sometimes uncomfortable film-making, with the Coen's at their most melancholic.


Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett, Max Casella, Adam Driver, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund
Country: USA/UK/France

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #29: 'True Grit' (2010)

It is curious as to why the Coen brothers, two of the greatest directors in cinema history, have taken so long to tackle a western. Their style and feel is ideally suited to the grit and the mystery of the West, most evident in No Country For Old Men (2007), Blood Simple (1984) and even The Big Lebowski (1998). How I rejoiced when I heard that not only were they to apply their trade to the western, but were to film a re-adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. Of course, it has already been filmed back in 1969 in the not-bad John Wayne version, but the original film always lacked that toughness, and the most important aspect of the film, the character of Mattie Ross, was messed up in the form of the highly annoying and 22-year old Kim Darby. The Coen's new adaptation sticks close to the source novel.

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a 14 year old girl whose father has just been murdered and robbed by the notorious Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Lacking faith in the law to bring her father's murderer to justice, she seeks out a lone lawman who has the 'true grit' to tackle such a job, and finds it in the form of trigger-happy U.S. Marshal Ruben 'Rooster' Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Cogburn is a drunkard who always shoots first, asks questions later, but Mattie sees in him the ability to see her father avenged. After reluctantly agreeing, Cogburn sets out with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), who has something of a financial gain with the capture of Chaney, and the two are eventually joined by the determined Mattie.

This is all that someone who has seen the 1969 original will be familiar with, as the 2010 version is in some ways very similar to it. However, the Coen's have their fingerprints all over this, and features some trademark quirky humour and some magnificent cinematography. In my opinion, this is one of their best since Miller's Crossing (1990), which I consider their greatest film. Their are some fine moments, such as a strange meeting with a man clothed in bearskin (complete with bear head) who tries to sell Cogburn and Mattie the corpse that they cut down not long before, and a shooting contest between LaBouef and a bladdered Cogburn.

The biggest problem with the original, as I mentioned before, is the character of Mattie Ross and the actress who played her. She was frustrating and bratty, and the focus of the film seemed to linger on John Wayne's Cogburn. This is Mattie's story and the Coen's wisely make sure that she dominates the film. In Steinfeld, they have found an actress who will surely go on to great things. She is absolutely stunning in the lead, brimming with confidence, intelligence and Southern sass. She manages to hold her own with two Oscar winners, and if anything, blows them out of the water. It's simply one of the finest child performances in many, many a year. Not to say the support is slacking. Bridges, as well as Steinfeld, has received an Oscar nomination for his efforts, and makes for a much better Cogburn than Wayne. John Wayne famously received his only Oscar win for the original film, but it seems now looking back that it was more of a token gesture for a body of work than anything. Wayne had that lived-in look, but Bridges has the acting chops. Matt Damon seems to have been forgotten amongst the two main leads, but his performance is also great, bringing a welcome humour and slight sexual tension to the film.

A trademark for the Coen's is the cinematography, here again working with their lifetime companion Roger Deakins. Never has the West been captured with such astounding beauty and terrifying menace. The final third of the film, in which Mattie encounters Chaney and his gang, led by 'Lucky' Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper, no relation), eventually leads to a night-time dash through the night. The night is shot with a crisp and starry mystery and magic - it is simply beautiful. It is also a nodding homage to Charles Laughton's 1955 masterpiece The Night Of The Hunter. I hope that this cleans up at the Oscars, even though I know it won't.


Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie