4 stars out of 5
I generally only review movies that can be seen in a theater, but the Coen Brothers are maybe my all-time favorite filmmakers, and this was kind of in theaters for a few days, so… I’m reviewing it! My blog, my rules.
I’ll end the suspense: I liked it a whole lot! The Coens make a western! Why not! Now, this was originally being made as a limited series for Netflix, and then they glued ’em together. So it’s six separate stories and there’s not a crummy one in the bunch. Their old friend Tim Blake Nelson is a freaking hoot as the titular singing (and shooting) cowboy, Buster Scruggs, in the opening segment. Next up, you want James Franco as a bankrobber and Stephen Root as a teller? You got ’em!
Those first two are fast and furious and laugh-out-loud funny, but then the Coens slow things down and soften the mood. Now it’s night and winter and Liam Neeson is a traveling impresario with a compelling stage performer. Then it’s man alone — Tom Waits as a prospector. In The Old Man & the Gun, Tom Waits sort of got to be Tom Waits, but in this he really gets to be Tom Waits and it’s great.
Wagon train! Zoe Kazan should be in more stuff; she’s quite pleasing. I could say more about her segment but just enjoy it, OK? Finally, as the sun sets on this movie, we’re inside a cramped stagecoach with Tyne Daly (next time you see me, ask me to do my impression of a guy on the TKTS line who had hoped to see Tyne Daly on Broadway), Brendan Gleeson, a trapper, an Englishman, a Frenchman, and — oh yes, one more passenger — the specter of death. A philosophical conversation ensues as we ride into the encroaching darkness.
The Coens pack this movie with so much entertainment — music and action and hilarity and gorgeous scenery and some food for thought if you’re into that sort of thing. All these years later, they continue to impress and surprise me with their ingenuity. Now, call me greedy, but it’s been a pretty long time since Hail, Caesar! — so how about a written-and-directed for the screen by the Coen Brothers movie, just one main story, I’ll leave it up to you guys if you want cast Clooney but that would be OK by me. Hail, Coens!
Jack Silbert, curator