Home Show The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

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with there we go because it's time for another home show partner. This is number 444 fo fo fo.
We'll let a sports reference fo fo fo.
Well hold on let's get there. Welcome. My name is Rob. I'm the executive producer of the
clubhouse podcast and I can't yodel. I mean I could if I tried probably but I don't want to try.
Joining me for this particular episode sitting across the desk in the co-host chair is the
newest member of the cast and a man that may not yodel but he can say ole ole ole ole ole ole ole
he is Alex. Welcome sir. Didn't realize the irony of doing the ballot of Buster Scruggs
AKA a Western in different various forms while wearing a Mexican luchador mask.
Correct. Sure. That's what I'm here for. Yeah. But wasn't fo fo fo. Somebody did that as a playoff.
I'm trying to look at a playoff prediction one of the bath. That was a basketball. I believe it was.
Whatever we do one of these it is to review something and this is no exception. As Alex just mentioned
the Cohen Brothers new film that is getting a theatrical run but it was made for Netflix
and it's called the Ballad of Buster Scruggs and before we get this thing moving we want to thank
some of our favorite people in the world at Allied and a great marketing. They hosted this
screening for us. Our vendors let us see movies in advance so we can talk to you guys about them
before they come out. Well by the time you hear this it will be available to you but we get
to see them in advance so we can talk to you guys about them. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
this is a very interesting thing. I did my best to not look too much into this
because I wanted to kind of go in as cold as I can. This is an anthology film
and normally especially in the last couple of decades when you're dealing with a film
that has multiple storylines in it they all connect normally typically a la pulp fiction right
not here hmm these are six separate stories that at one point they were going to be broken up
into a mini series but then they decided now we're going to put them all together into a collection
so it's almost like a mini or it's your mini series in one blast right but again these aren't
connected stories and it's not the way anthologies have gone in recent years where it's just like
the same cast recast over and over again come to be different casts the only thing
that these stories have in common is that they take place in the old west that's it so there's no
like even character crossover whatsoever nobody from one inside the background of another
there is no crossover at all the only thing besides the fact that they're in the old west the only
thing that connects them is that they are all part of a book okay and it's the book is called
the Ballad of Buster Scruggs and if you watch close enough in the beginning you see all there are
six stories and all six are listed in the table of contents interesting and each one starts with a
color painted portrait that pertains to the story is it like the opening like it'll turn into
the picture or is it just a page okay and you can see like it's not like it's just like words
words words like you can read as they're turning the page you can if you read quick enough it
does pertain to what was going on okay so I would not be able to do that there are six stories
the aforementioned the Ballad of Buster Scruggs with Tim Blake Nelson the fantastic
Clancy Brown also in this also fantastic near Algodonus James Franco and Stephen Root
are in this one very nice you would see everything you have my attention meal ticket
with the Liam Neeson's mm-hmm all gold canyon with Tom Waits there was a man who like to dig in
the ground that's my that's how might this beautiful there's a factoid about movies and Tom
always hits me the gal who got rattled with the Zoe Kazan you might remember her from the big
sick last year and then the mortal remains with Tyne daily Brendan Gleason are you two big names
in that I always like Brendan Gleason a big fan and Tyne daily kind of Tyne daily siding fair
all gold canyon is the only one that is almost strictly one person
so like just one person and nature or one person in nature and that's all I'm going to say
okay so Ballad of Buster Scruggs is basically not these these run anywhere from 10 to 22 minutes
so they're basically each their own short film correct because the total runtime is right at 215
yeah I was seeing it was a 212 was the current and it's the longest Cohen Brothers movie right so
about a Buster Scruggs is kind of a mini musical if you will Buster Scruggs is a gun slinger slash
singer well Tim Blake Nelson does have a fantastic voice yes have a beautiful voice
near Algodonus is about a bank robber who doesn't really do well bank robbing so it's more comedy
or more just bumbling it's dark comedy so Yekiti Saks is not in no okay
uh meal ticket is about a man who travels from town to town with a very special actor to put on
shows to to make money and the actor is played by Harry Melling and that's all I'm willing to say
okay all gold canyon like it's such a tom weights is a prospector
out big basically digging for gold there's a genuine part of me that wonders if they just found
tom weights near it canyon I wouldn't surprise me because I I and let's go back to that let's
come back as I want to come back I want to give you synopsis and then we'll go through each one
all right the gal who got rattled is about a young lady and her brother who joined a wagon train
to go from the east coast to Oregon to start a new life where she may have been promised to a man
to be married so along a certain trail perhaps could be okay which also plays a role
and then the mortal remains is about five people in a stage coach
this is one of those very dialogue driven because everything takes place in the stage coach
five very different people I don't know how to say this
we're all going somewhere okay so let's just take them and break them down one by one
ballot of buster shrugs because I didn't know anything going in right
when the ballot of buster shrugs ended there were a lot of us in the theater that went
did I black out like you were trying to figure out how the time disappeared well I saw the
table of contents and my first thought was that these were chapters of the ballot of buster shrugs
so you figured it was one long movie with different separate correct okay so it's like okay this is
what we're doing fair enough and it's really well done well I interestingly I have a question
in regards to the setup sure do you feel like this might be a format that gets used consistently
moving forward because I would like to see it because this is something this is the type of anthology
film we haven't seen a long time but what I'm saying is as people's attention span seems to be
narrowing to the point where everybody has the magic box in their pocket and they wind up pulling
out their phone but this is the okay you're getting 10 to 20 minutes if you can't keep your eyes on
the screen that long we ain't got no especially since it's going to be on Netflix right so it's going
to be in mini series form as a whole okay it went back and forth for the well but then they decided
to put it all together but they wanted to give it a theatrical run so perhaps to be considered
for certain things here in about 60 days and I think we'll come back to that near algodonis
dark comedy like I said earlier right meal ticket very dark and brooding
all gold canyon more of a performance piece because it's just tomboy to nature
the gal who got rattled
I don't even know how to categorize it okay
and the mortal remains also dark but this runs
comedy to tragedy it runs drama to thrills it this is the twilight zone in the old west it's
the really the best way to say it interesting and so when you put in that proper framework I think
it prepares you for the film a little bit more but I really really really enjoyed this and it's
hard to review a film like this because there's so much going on I don't know that any particular
performance stood out for me however what about so you were talking about potential awards
would this be one of those that might be on deck for an ensemble award if such a thing existed
it couldn't because it's not an ensemble piece that's also fair and there are award shows that do
that but not of consequence I thought the gloves did that the sad awards do okay if I'm not mistaken
I could see the coen brothers getting nominated as co-directors because the visual style in this
it's very sharp but very kind of old school at the same time it's not like technicolors style
uh in that same vein I don't know if you saw this under the trivia this is the first time they've
shot digitally yes I found that very interesting but it didn't feel old school it didn't feel modern
which I liked about it which takes talent I'm doing yeah absolutely and it's it's well shot
and Carter Burwell does the music I enjoy his work as well and the cinematography by Bruno Delbenel
I thought he looked beautiful very cool there's so much I want to say but as spoiler-free as we try
to stay on this show it's going to be it's it's not the minefield that other films have been
but it's not easy okay I enjoyed this film very very much well it's also a it's probably even
harder when you think about if you say any details you're giving away any reveal that isn't a 20
minutes man I will say if you had if you if you told me I needed to pick an actor or actress out of
this mm-hmm that has the best shot because the problem is these stories are so short they don't have
some of these actors don't get enough time to stretch their lives they don't get enough permanency for
this weights is very captivating of this well he's usually captivating just with that voice like he's
you like you said you wonder if they just found Tom was because he's a little nutty in this he's
a little nutty right that's what I'm saying what the other part is is that voice it does he ask if
anybody wants to know how he got these scars that's all I don't know he is not but his performance in
this for being the only person there he holds it down really well so basically just acting off
of nothing which is right and and time daily is really really good in this that if there's a criticism
I have of this film I might have arranged the stories a little bit differently okay because
every story is so different I might have changed some things around to make it a little smoother within
the transition do you think there's a possibility that they arranged it the way they did for a
something particular that may not have worked I don't know I would love to to sit down with them
and ask them like was there a logic to how you put the stories in order because I think like
opening with the ballot of Buster Scruggs granted it's the title of the film right but opening
with that kind of sets a tone that doesn't carry all the way through and I wonder if that was the
point and it they were like all right here's your happy semi musical now we're getting dark well I
think I would have done all goldenians second okay as a transition and then I probably would have
I still would have finished with the mortal remains because of the nature of it
but I think I would have put near algodonus before it and maybe put the put the girl who got rattled
a meal ticket in the middle a meal tickets probably the only one that I might not move
so I was wondering if the mortal remains remains at the end no redundancy intentional
is it because it's more of a finite close for you or is it just the topic again I don't want to give
anything away okay so so it but it's not but it's a good finish or anything else it's a good
finish right now I if you could you could do Buster Scruggs last two if you wanted to it's like hey
we've been dark and dreary here's some singing mm-hmm it's really well done it's very enjoyable
and what I really like about this going to Netflix is you really don't have to sit down
and try to watch the thing all at one time you could watch one story stop it and come back to it
if you want to because there's no common threads through them you don't have to be looking for
anything and I think that was I won't say that pulled me out of it but there was an element of that
to me of looking for the connection that never happened okay but that didn't that I wouldn't call
that a detriment to the film I'm just so used to that I become so accustomed to that in films like
this that I look for that and you don't have to admit this is just a series of short films basically
all done by the same people now with it being the short films and just kind of I don't want to say
thrown together because that almost feels like it is too dismissive but does it make the longer
runtime of the whole feel shorter or was it more along the lines if you could tell exactly where
you were because you were X number in that's an interesting question here's what I would say not
knowing it was six short films going into it okay when Buster Scruggs finished I was like oh
okay this is what we're doing mm-hmm that made me more cognizant of the time because the thing
about it is near Agadonis is not very long meal ticket feels a little longer than it probably is
all gold canyon felt about right grow who got rattled felt a little long for me
to get to where we were going okay and then the moral remains was about right from it's from a
pacing standpoint but by then I knew how much time we had left so I didn't I wasn't really worried
about that but again this is a really well done I enjoyed this very very much I'll be interested to
see how the theatrical run of it goes because it's getting a very very limited run in America
I mean I'm sorry it's the atrophy beforehand it's not because it hit Netflix the same day
it's it's getting a qualifying ground yeah basically yeah probably a week or two at the most
because you again you've got the holiday next week so that's gonna play a role yeah but I did
really really enjoy this well and I know I off off Mike had pointed out something that I saw
in the trivia which somebody made one of a void right that I found was a little nod towards the end
of the movie to a prior movie that the Coen Brothers did I know a remake if you will a remake
starring that was received very very well yes that I found very interesting so keep an eye out for
that one in the mortal remains and apparently the stories were actually written by the Coen's
over a 25 year period interesting so and was it Ethan or Joel Cohen that was saying that they
always preferred Westerns I remember and that I don't know I'm not what I'm looking at right now
doesn't say that but okay I feel like one of them preferred Westerns one of them preferred another
form whether it just be drama or something and that's kind of how despite being brothers I'm having
the different opinions seems to mesh things together and again I like this because it's so different
you like the uniqueness of it yeah it's just so different that it's one of those deals or it's
just like oh this is kind it's almost it's almost refreshing because it's something different
because it's it's it hearkens back to it to it I talk about it in my review which is written
written already because I did it and you can find that at www.theclubhousepodcast.com
that's our website how it reminded me of the way theaters used to be where you'd go and you'd
have maybe a news reel or a sports reel then you'd have a little short kind of like Pixar does
okay and they but some of them were cereals when some of them were self-contained stories so they
just like took six of these and put them together interesting which is which people don't do anymore
no they don't but everything has to tie together it really doesn't I have an interesting question for you
okay with them not tying together do you think the movie would have been better or felt like it had
a more appropriate runtime if you threw out one of the stories hmm I think it's a story had a
purpose in a place okay there I mean usually when you do an anthology or mini series if there's
things that aren't directly needed for the next piece I always felt like there was one or two that
I was like okay this is just filling the gap not really I mean they all are their quality stories
some are just longer or shorter than others and they've had time to work on the story
yes apparently well let's go to the final analysis we do the final analysis on the show we're not
gonna give you thumbs up thumbs down letter grades numbers anything like that two questions question
number one is what I see this again now the answers know that we're done here since this is going
straight to Netflix for the most part I don't know that we should use our normal scale even though
it's getting a theatrical on this theatrical one is incredibly limited so I would like to put this
more in the Netflix sphere okay so if it the answers yes then it would be how urgent within my
queue what I put this because my queue is pretty stout because I don't get to watch a lot of TV
all right now Rob yes sir would you watch the ballot of Buster Scruggs again I absolutely would
absolutely would now in your Netflix queue would you be immediately watching this maybe putting it
off for the weekend maybe next week or just putting it at the bottom of the list I would put this
in my top 15% of my queue okay so that's that's a within a weekend yeah and but again what I like
about it is I could watch one story go to something else come back watch another one of the stories
because they're not connected so I could do it in any way that I want that just sound like
something that would be good to know ahead of time too so anybody in the empire listening to this
thank you for checking in yes again thank you for listening and there's no cheater tip exactly just
watch one I mean you can power through all six of them yet some of them are a little heavier than
others but it I really enjoyed this film it is the ballot of Buster Scruggs directed by the
column brothers available for you either theatrically if you're if if I as Letterman used to say in
select cities and I pray your city has been selected or just go to Netflix and check it out it's
there for you right about now okay there and we want to thank our friends at allied in a great
a marketing for letting me come and check this out we love our vendors are so good to us they let
us see movies in advance and we can talk to you guys about them so you can make the best possible
choices for your entertainment dollar or in this case your time let's do the plugs visit our website
the aforementioned www.theclubhousepodcast.com find my written review there and so much more
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Palmer Old West this can happen