For the longest time, Joel and Ethan Coen's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was intended to be an anthology series. Netflix gave the duo carte blanche to make six episodes of idiosyncratic Western stories, and the brothers subsequently assembled a crew of talented actors to bring their brand of quirky brilliance to the small screen. But just a few months ago, it was revealed that the Coens had changed their mind- Buster Scruggs was now set to be a feature-length movie. Yes, it's still an anthology, but it'll be two hours long rather than six, so that's either a win for brevity or a lost opportunity for great Coen Bros. storytelling, depending on how you look at it. Either way, the Oscar-winning pair's follow-up to Hail, Caesar! just held its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it received mostly good reviews. Ahead of its November release, Netflix has released the first trailer for the film- watch it below!
I mean, it's a new film from the Coen Brothers. What more can I say?
If I had to make a list of filmmakers who could pull off a great anthology movie, the Coens would be at the very top of the list. They excel at making minor stories memorable; think about the opening of A Serious Man or pretty much the entirety of Hail, Caesar! With the latter film and 2013's Inside Llewyn Davis (one of their masterpieces, in my opinion), the Coens have shifted from conventional narratives to odd whirlwinds of cyclical misery and incidental absurdity, delivering some of their funniest, strangest work in the process. In my mind, an anthology film is the logical next step.
This looks like a blast, and the cast is to die for. Tim Blake Nelson seems like a possible scene-stealer as the eponymous hero of the ballad, and I've already heard plenty of great things about Tom Waits' turn in the film. When you add Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, and Brendan Gleeson to the mix, you've got a pretty special crew. It'll be interesting to see if the Coens receive much pushback for casting James Franco, who came under fire for inappropriate harassment earlier this year. But the trailer seems to have no problem putting Franco in the foreground, so maybe it's a non-issue.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs will play at the New York Film Festival in October before debuting on Netflix and in select theaters on November 16. As you can imagine, this is one of my most anticipated for the rest of the year.
Image: Netflix/IMDb
I mean, it's a new film from the Coen Brothers. What more can I say?
If I had to make a list of filmmakers who could pull off a great anthology movie, the Coens would be at the very top of the list. They excel at making minor stories memorable; think about the opening of A Serious Man or pretty much the entirety of Hail, Caesar! With the latter film and 2013's Inside Llewyn Davis (one of their masterpieces, in my opinion), the Coens have shifted from conventional narratives to odd whirlwinds of cyclical misery and incidental absurdity, delivering some of their funniest, strangest work in the process. In my mind, an anthology film is the logical next step.
This looks like a blast, and the cast is to die for. Tim Blake Nelson seems like a possible scene-stealer as the eponymous hero of the ballad, and I've already heard plenty of great things about Tom Waits' turn in the film. When you add Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, and Brendan Gleeson to the mix, you've got a pretty special crew. It'll be interesting to see if the Coens receive much pushback for casting James Franco, who came under fire for inappropriate harassment earlier this year. But the trailer seems to have no problem putting Franco in the foreground, so maybe it's a non-issue.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs will play at the New York Film Festival in October before debuting on Netflix and in select theaters on November 16. As you can imagine, this is one of my most anticipated for the rest of the year.
Image: Netflix/IMDb
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