The First Trailer for "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" Saddles Up Another Wacky Coen Brothers Film

Scene from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

There are few directors who have the unpredictable track record of brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It seems like every time they release a dark and gritty movie like No Country for Old Men, it's immediately followed by a farcical gem like Burn After Reading. Even their most recent film, Hail Caesar!, is a Hollywood satire that has a subtext about the power of a metaphorical religion within the studio system. So, where do you go from a film that encapsulated every genre possible and turned it into one of their silliest films yet? Well, you go back to the genre that earned you some clout. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs started out as a TV series for Netflix, but comes to audiences now as an anthology film about a cowboy going on wacky adventures. If the first trailer is any sign, it's a different take on the genre than something like True Grit. Much like Hail Caesar!, it's downright farcical.

The great thing about The Coen Brothers is that they cannot be rooted solely in one genre. They jump around so often and fuse so consistently that their worldview is all their own. The world can be hostile as well as hilarious often within the same minute. Its part of the magic of Hail Caesar!, which remains one of their more underappreciated films if just because of how it tried so much over the course of one movie. Still, the western is something that means a lot to the duo, having informed a lot of their films, even the non-westerns. Early films like Miller's Crossing owe some credit to the genre. Even their Best Picture-winning No Country for Old Men could be described as a neo-western. In fact, one of their most financially successful films was True Grit, a remake of the iconic John Wayne western.

Of course, it's easy to get excited about a Coen Brothers film regardless of context. With that said, this particular film has had a lengthy production history that has gone many years and was once set to be a TV series on AMC. Even when picked up by Netflix, many still believed that it was going to be their first series. As recently as the past few film festivals, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' true identity was still a mystery. Well, as the the trailer suggests, it is in fact a film. Considering that Netflix is looking to have a big Fall season with the critically acclaimed film Roma, The Coen Brothers are in good company, though one has to wonder if they will be in the Oscar conversation along with Alfonso Cuaron.

This isn't to say that The Coen Brothers' glory days are behind them, but more that they have another strange track record. Their dramas fare better during awards season. For example, Fargo went on to receive a Best Picture nomination, while the cult classic The Big Lebowski flew under the radar. While their films are often comedic, the more farcical films have remained out of serious awards conversation. Some of them were just too silly to deserve that chance (Burn After Reading), but others deserved more credit (Inside Llewyn Davis). With all of that said, a Fall release would at least suggest that Netflix wants to put some faith in the film. Given that their Fall releases also tend to do better at the Oscars, this could be one of those strange achievements. That is, if the new Academy loves themselves some slapstick western humor.

Check out the trailer below:

Looks really funny. Here's the plot description according to IMDb:

An anthology western following six different storylines centering on a man named Buster Scruggs.

Again, it's hard to see this as a major awards contender. Then again, it was also crazy to think of a monster movie winning Best Picture. And yet, The Shape of Water happened, and now it's unclear what the future of the Oscars will truly look like. Even if that ends up not being the case and Roma gets all of Netflix's attention, it will be great to see The Coen Brothers back up to their old wacky hi-jinks. For now, it at least looks like Netflix will be having a better output of movies than what they have had so far this year. Now it's only time to see if this is as great as all of those film festivals make it out to be.