Review: "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is a Fun and Off-Beat Kaleidoscope of Western Skewering

Scene from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Over the course of a career spanning close to 40 years, co-directors Joel and Ethan Coen have done wonders to not only create captivating westerns, but have reinvented the very idea of Americana in the process. Some of their most successful movies, whether it be Miller's Crossing or the more candid True Grit, have all helped to redefined an essential part of the American mythology. So, what else do they have to say in 2018? With anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, it looks like there's quite a bit actually. Ranging from slapstick to some pitch black drama, The Coen Brothers' take on the west is far more nihilistic these days. It may be among their weaker films, especially with each segment tending to bounce around from tone and style so radically, but it's also further evidence that the old west is still special to them and that they have stories to tell, even if they're not their own.

Composing Greatness: #1. Oscars 2018 Edition - "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"

Scene from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Welcome to a very special edition of Composing Greatness. In this limited series, I will be looking at the five scores nominated for this year's Best Original Score category. To avoid favoritism, the list will be done in alphabetical order of composers and feature the same guidelines as the original series. This is meant to explore the music behind the great films of 2017, and provide insight into what makes each of them special and whether or not they deserved to be nominated at all. Join me all week as I listen to the  music, leave some thoughts, and hopefully sway you to check out these wonderful, wonderful scores.

Review: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" Hunts for Answers in Hilarious, Provocative Manners

Frances McDormand

In writing, there is one common rule: "show, don't tell." The act of telling someone your intent is seen as a lazy trope that doesn't allow moments to resonate. In director Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the story begins with a perfect subversion of this. The titular three billboards detail a crime that drives Mildred's (Frances McDormand) bitter passion throughout the story. These three signs tell a story, and one that is more powerful than showing a single moment of being "raped while dying." As the story progresses, it deconstructs the idea of telling someone your agenda and shows the complicated faults of a small town Midwest society in powerful detail. In the end, Mildred may still be the protagonist - but the people initially pursued as the antagonists are far less easy to hate. McDonagh's dark comedy is one of the more provocative social commentary movies of the year, but it's also unforgettable thanks to a great cast and McDonagh's phenomenal script. Few films capture characters quite as memorable as those of Ebbing, Missouri, and it's a shame that there aren't more writers as interesting as McDonagh writing movies these days.

Review: "Wonderstruck" is an Inspiring Exploration of Life and Acceptance

Scene from Wonderstruck

Outside of animated movies, it seems very difficult to make a great family movie. The live action format is generally populated with films reliant on cheap jokes and pandering plots. It becomes difficult to see them as being art, or something that encourages kids to see the world in more perplexing manners. Director Todd Haynes has set out with writer Brian Selznick to fix this with Wonderstruck, whose execution is just as hard to summarize as its plot. Even then, it creates the wonder of cinema and youth in a manner that is inspiring. With two intersecting plots, the story challenges basic perceptions of what a family movie can be, and in the process develops a tangible art film for kids. It's heartfelt and moving, as well as smart. There isn't anything like this silent film/70's kids adventure hybrid, and that alone makes it worth checking out.

Review: "Hail, Caesar!" is a Kaleidoscope of Wonder

Scene from Hail, Caesar!

One of the big reasons that directors Joel and Ethan Coen continue to resonate is because they are not limited to a genre in the ways that others are. If they want to make a heist film, they make The Ladykillers. If they want to make a stoner film, they make The Big Lebowski. Their credentials feature an endless barrage of genre-shifting cinema that somehow manages to remain consistently entertaining. With their latest Hail, Caesar!, they seem to take that advice too literally and end up producing a comedy that isn't just a period piece, but a western, musical, bible epic, noir, and even an earlier period piece. To simply explain the film to someone is to suggest that what Hail, Caesar! is is actually films within films (though not in the Inception way) in their loving ode to the power of film and why they are just as tangible to audiences as religion.

Review: "Carol" is About as Perfect as Movies Get

Scene from Carol

Love. At its core, almost every fiction narrative film has been in some capacity about the subject of love. It could be the explicit love between two subjects. It could be for the love of power. Whatever it may be, love remains just as vital to cinema after a century despite the emotions being the same thing in a different wardrobe. So how exactly do you improve on love in ways that The Lady Eve or Titanic hasn't covered? While thousands of films have tried, none have come close to the sublime new film from director Todd Haynes called Carol. While there's not much of a gimmick (two women fall in love), it's an example of love at its core; expressed with visual beauty and narrative excellence the likes of which haven't been seen in American films for quite some time. Carol may not have the most exciting story, but it has the purest depiction of what love is all about.