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BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) in Movies

Jan 10, 2019 (Updated Jan 10, 2019)  
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Drama, Western
A winning anthology
I am NOT a Coen Brothers apologist. For every good/great film that they have made (like FARGO, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN or underrated THE HUDSUCKER PROXY) there are duds/movies that didn't work for me (like O' BROTHER WHER ART THOU, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and the movie I ranked as the worst film of 2016, HAIL, CAESAR). So when I heard that the latest Coen Brothers flick was going straight to Netflix AND (like HAIL, CAESAR), it was a film anthology of 6 short stories, I dragged my feet in checking this out.

But...I am glad I finally got around to it...for THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS is a strong film, taking on a heavy subject (death) in a variety of ways - light-hearted, poignant and deadly (pun intended) serious. The tone of this film - or, more accurately, these 6 short films - worked for me and I felt they wove together very well to tell an overarching story of man's relationship with death - as seen through the eyes of Wild, Wild West characters.

And what characters they are! From Tim Blake Nelson's titular character, Buster Scruggs, to James Franco's hapless (but lucky) Outlaw to Liam Neeson's traveling theatrical show to Tom Waite's grizzled prospector to Zoe Kazan's lonesome Prairie Widow to the group of passengers on the Stagecoach in the last vignette, all are interesting to watch, and listen to.

Credit, of course, needs to go to Joel and Ethan Cohen. These characters are interesting to watch, because these two put wonderful scenes and scenery up on the screen with dialogue (or lack of dialogue) that perfectly reflects what is going on and what the characters are feeling. In my opinion, the Coen Brothers are at their best when they focus on gritty subjects with poignancy (BARTON FINK) but fail when they try to get "wacky" or "over-serious" (BURN AFTER READING, A SERIOUS MAN), this film is full of the former and has very little of the latter.

I'm sure, like all Coen Brothers films, that this anthology of short films is not for everyone - and not every film will work for everyone - but they did for me. I thought each short film was the better than the one before it. I caught the vibe of what the Coen's were after and I fell under their spell.

Letter Grade: A-

8 stars out of 10 and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The King in Yellow in Books

Aug 12, 2019 (Updated Aug 12, 2019)  
The King in Yellow
The King in Yellow
Robert W. Chambers | 1895 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Much-mentioned but seemingly little-read collection of short stories by Robert Chambers. The anthology owes most of its fame to the fact that HP Lovecraft was sufficiently impressed by some of the stories to retroactively incorporate them into his own mythology, something Lovecraft's disciples built upon with more energy than finesse.

The best of these stories do have a sense of subliminal encroaching madness and unease, as symbolised by the mysterious play mentioned in the title and its associated motifs, which is very impressively created. However, much of the remainder is a set of essentially interchangeable tales of rich young Americans studying art in Paris and swooning over beautiful young mademoiselles; they are quite heavy going and possibly not worth the effort of reading. The opening few fantasy stories are very good, on the whole; the rest not so much.
  
Tales not just for Christmas!
Midwinter Mysteries is a great, festive collection of crime stories and thrillers - and I loved it. There are some of my favourite characters in this anthology, and some I’m now very interested in finding out more about. Graham Brack brings in another great story from Josef Slonsky (he IS my favourite), Linda Stratmann’s Mina Scarletti is also a great, if ghostly, story, and Charles Dickens makes an appearance thanks to J. C. Briggs (might have to read more of these books). Actually, it’s hard NOT to like any of these stories, and this fabulous collection has just made my wish list even longer - there wasn’t a single story that I didn’t enjoy. The collection left me feeling kind of seasonal in a slightly murderous, criminal way - but these stories don’t have to be confined to December!