The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Alternate Title: Misleading Title

Run Time: 2h 13min

Plot: It’s a collection of 6 fascinating short stories from the wild west era of America.

Tl;dr Review: It’s going to capture your attention from the very beginning, making you want to see what’s going to happen next.

When to Watch: It’s a good movie to watch in the morning during the weekend. Otherwise watch it at night.

With Whom to Watch: It’s a great movie for dates! Also you can watch it with friends or siblings. It’s better when you watch it with someone.

Full Review: I had high hopes for the movie, and it delivered! To be honest I only wanted to watch it for the “First time?” meme. I was hoping it’d be a hilarious western movie starring James Franco. Well, Franco was there, but only for a short while. So, my expectations weren’t met in that regard. But as a movie it definitely delivered the goods nonetheless!

The movie starts off really great. Out of the six, this was the best story to start off the movie. Also it sets the tone for the rest. You get to understand from the beginning that what you expect will never happen. The stories themselves are superbly written. They will keep you on your toe. And since all of those are standalone stories, you’ll keep waiting to see what the next one has to offer.

The dialogues were well written too. I believe the better way to describe it would be to say, the dialogues were a great conduit for the movie. Some had near to no dialogue, some were more verbose than your chatty neighbor. But the scarcity and the abundance both were actually necessary for the respective story.

Another thing that I must talk about is the music. It was really neat! I was enjoying the music throughout the movie! The stories can get a bit too surreal at a time, but the music brings the audience down to earth and keeps them grounded. It was much needed.

Now to talk about the negatives. The cast for each of the stories were nearly perfect. But I felt one or two stories could do better with someone else. Does it take away from the stories? No, but it does take away a bit from the fun.

The editing was also a bit weird. I didn’t understand why they needed the different filters for the stories. It could’ve been better with natural lights. But it does add a bit of magic to the surreal tone to the movie. Still I would’ve preferred natural light.

The major issue would be pacing. Like I said, the stories are great! But the pacing of some of the stories are lacking. If you divide the movie in three acts, with two stories in each act, I would say the second act or the middle part of the movie drags on a bit too much than needed. Perhaps they could’ve been trimmed down a bit. It’d have reduced the runtime, and would’ve added a much need spur to the movie.

So, the question is, should you watch it? Yes, absolutely!
Are you going to miss something if you skip it? Yes, definitely! It’s a neat watching experience. A much needed respite from the superhero, biopic, and generic action movies that have been littering our viewing experience.

Final Score: Sing along with Buster/10