This Coen Brothers' Netflix original is a bit uneven, with six distinct chapters, each with different casts and stories, but all old west themed. Typical of a Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan Coen were most recently in these pages for writing and directing Hail, Caesar! and they do the same here) project, there is much parody and some cringing.
Jack and I watched it separately on different days. The first chapter, starring Tim Blake Nelson (last blogged for Colossal) in the title role as a singing sharp-shooting cowboy, is Jack's favorite and it definitely has the most humor. The second features James Franco (since The Disaster Artist I will soon have seen him in every episode of the HBO series The Deuce) as a bank robber. The third stars Liam Neeson (just seen in Widows and several trailers for movies coming soon) as an impresario. The fourth is based on a Jack London story about a prospector played by Tom Waits (most recently in these pages for The Old Man & The Gun). My favorite is the fifth, with Zoe Kazan (last blogged for The Big Sick and worked in three episodes of The Deuce) as a young wife in a wagon train, inspired by a story by Stewart Edward White. Lastly, we have Tyne Daly (after Spider-Man: Homecoming she's been in thirteen episodes of the new Murphy Brown show) as a lady on a stagecoach. The cast is huge but I'm not going to go through each one.
Carter Burwell's (last blogged for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) score can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. The theme is clearly based on The Streets of Laredo (wiki).
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are singing its praises, averaging 92%, while its audiences are a bit more reserved, at 77. With a Netflix subscription you can stop and start and decide for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment