The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Although all of their films are identifiably Coen-esque, the Coen brothers have a large number of lanes they can work in -- they run the gamut from wacky, to serious, to comtemplative, to you get the idea. With it's omnibus approach, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs services all of their various proclivites.

In each of the six vignettes in this anthology, the brothers take time-honored archetypes and twist them around to drive home a cental thesis -- the universe is relentlessly cruel and we are hapless participants in a rigged game. It's simultaneously a homage and a critque of Westerns.

Some of the stories aren't as good as the others, but they are all distinct, masterfully realized and have an O. Henry vibe to them. My favorite is the first, which stars a never better Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs, an inverted Roy Rogers type that's secretly a nihilistic Bugs Bunny. He deserved a Supporting Oscar nomination, and maybe even a win. He's a force of nature. Of course, he got no recognition.

It's also just a flat out beautiful film, marking the first (and probably only) experience the duo have on digital. It's grown in my estimation since I watched it, and it's nature as an anthology means it'll be super easy to revist. Any one of these stories could be a major contender for best short Oscar, but, at its current length, the film was shut out. Nevertheless, this is uppertier Coens, and that's saying something.