The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Buster Scruggs	Tim Blake Nelson
Curly Joe	Clancy Brown
Near Algodones
Cowboy	James Franco	½
Teller	Stephen Root
The Man in Black	Ralph Ineson
Drover	Jesse Luken
Meal Ticket
Impresario	Liam Neeson
Artist (Harrison)	Harry Melling
All Gold Canyon
Prospector	Tom Waits	½
Young Man	Sam Dillon
The Gal Who Got Rattled
Alice Longabaugh	Zoe Kazan
Billy Knapp	Bill Heck
Mr. Arthur	Grainger Hines
Gilbert Longabaugh	Jefferson Mays
The Mortal Remains
Lady	Tyne Daly
Irishman	Brendan Gleeson
Englishman	Jonjo O'Neill
Frenchman	Saul Rubinek
Trapper	Chelcie Ross

Review

This anthology film is the result of six American frontier stories that the Coen brothers had written over the years. The stories all share a Western theme, but differ in just about every other respect, ranging from the giddy title story via the otherworldly "Meal Ticket" to the cheerful "All Gold Canyon" and the poignant "The Gal Who Got Rattled". The filmmaking is of top class all along, and the stories all leave their mark in some way or other. My favourite of many fine performances here belongs to Tom Waits (who is not alien to anthology films) as an infectiously optimistic prospector.