A Conversation with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Pt. 3: “Meal Ticket”
(I would be remiss in my role as a budding Internet film critic, were I not to warn you of the many “spoilers” contained within the following text. This isn’t a review intended for people who haven’t seen the movie yet, but rather a critique for people who have already seen the movie and/or want to dive real deep into what it’s all about. I am such a person, and nobody else seemed to be writing this sort of article, so here I am with Part 3.)
Speaking of which, here I am with Part 1
And here I am with Part 2
And we’ll all meet at Part 6
The latest from the mighty Coen Brothers, rich in its variety and encoded meaning, includes all the recurring themes that have formed a shifting backdrop to their beguiling stylistic imprint these 35 years. Their films walk a tightrope between screwball comedy and brutal violence, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is as extreme an example of both as we have yet seen — as graphic and mean-spirited as No Country for Old Men, as cartoonish and comical as The Hudsucker Proxy. Behind that stylized Sturges/Peckinpah surface lies a master spectrum from “zany schemes gone terribly wrong” (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Burn After…
