The Coen Brothers have proven themselves in almost every genre imaginable, from possibly their most famous movie The Big Lebowski to the mystery thriller Fargo or the western drama No Country for Old Men, these directors have put out Oscar quality movies time and time again.

Now they have taken their talent to Netflix for their most recent movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. To put the movie into perspective to anyone who has not heard of it, I didn’t know this was a Coen Brothers movie when I started watching it and not even 20 minutes in I quickly realized who made this movie because of their unique style and tone they give to the film.

The Coen brothers have such a unique style and none of their movies are the same, yet they somehow fit their voice and image in every movie they make and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is what you imagine when you think of a Stereotypical Coen brothers movie.

It is a western that is comprised of 6 short stories none of which are connected, each one highlights the trials and tribulations of what it was like to live in the Midwest during the development of the united states.

Even though it is a very serious movie with dark subject matter the filmmakers added a level of lightheartedness and comedy to it. They rode the perfect line to balance the tone to use comedy to tell the various short stories.

It was very interesting to me how much I ended up caring for each of the characters in such a short period of time, each story was about 20 minutes long and by the end of each one I was deeply invested into the story they were telling and the people that were involved. And it was so well done especially when the character development in 20 minutes of screen time was better than most movies do in 2 hours of storytelling

Each segment has so many underlying messages and hidden subject matter that I felt like I didn’t get the full grasp of the movie until I watched it for the second time. Even if I watched it 100 more times I feel like I would find something new each watch.

Most fans speculate that each story is connected in some way but there is no strong evidence to support it.

Another praise to the movie is the tone each story manages to capture, every one captures a different feel yet the whole movie has a similar tone, they all feel like they are apart of the same movie which makes for a cohesive blend that allows the movie to flow smoothly. Each segment its recognizable in its own unique way.

I really feel like big name directors should start doing small one off projects on streaming services like this, it gives them more of a freedom to do what they want and how they want to do it, and it enables smaller films like this to reach a wider audience being on Netflix.