The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: reviews

What the critics say average 9.0 from 3 outlets

• 10 The TelegraphRobbie Collin The Coens are in inspired form with this macabre, gonzo Western. Read
• 9.0 Rolling StonePeter Travers The gallows humor of their fatalistic "Ballad" allows the filmmakers to do what they do best: laugh in the face of death. Read
• 8.0 The GuardianPeter Bradshaw Franco, Neeson and Waits traipse across the prairie in a lovingly crafter collection of vignettes spattered with bloody violence and inky humor. Read
• VarietyOwen Gleiberman Since the episodes are uneven in quality (though the best of them seize and hold you), you may feel that it's too much of a just-okay thing. Read
• The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthy This little Western anthology is minor Coen Brothers, worth checking out on Netflix, but of very limited potential theatrically. Read
• Screen DailyTim Grierson It doesn't reinvent the Coens' sardonic, measured aesthetic, but the anthology's looser structure allows them a friskiness that is welcome. Read
• The WrapAlonso Duralde 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' will be, at best, a charming footnote in the Coens' career (...) It's a pretty good one, but be ready to love some episodes more than others. Read
• IndiewireEric Kohn Intermittenly funny, gorgeous, and patience-trying 130 minutes, but fans will find plenty of gems in this messy assemblage of Coen brothers motifs. Read
• TimeStephanie Zacharek A book of cowboy tales written in movie language (...) This anthology stars out at a jaunty canter and becomes progressively more grim. Read
• The PlaylistJessica Kiang As a whole, the film has to be chalked down to a perplexingly minor addition to one of the most beloved cinematic canons of our time. Read