PSA: Tom Waits Is In The Coen Brothers’ THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS
David Bowie was, for many years, the coolest motherfucker on the face of the Earth. When he tragically passed away in 2016, it became necessary for humankind to select a new coolest motherfucker on the face of the Earth. You may not have gotten the memo, but it's been decided that Tom Waits is that motherfucker.
Today, we're excited to learn that said cool motherfucker is a part of the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the movie that began life as a limited, six-part Netflix series. We've known for some time that the film would be divided into half a dozen chapters, but today - on the eve of the movie's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival - we've also learned who's starring in each of the film's six sections.
Here's the lineup, via The Playlist:
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
Tim Blake Nelson (Buster Scruggs)
Willie Watson (The Kid)“Near Algodones”
James Franco (Cowboy)“Meal Ticket”
Liam Neeson (Impresario)
Harry Melling (Artist)“All Gold Canyon”
Tom Waits (Prospector)“The Gal Who Got Rattled”
Bill Heck (Billy Knapp)
Zoe Kazan (Alice Longabaugh)
Grainger Hines (Mr. Arthur)“The Mortal Remains”
Brendan Gleeson (Irishman)
Tyne Daly (Lady)
Jonjo O’Neill (Englishman)
Saul Rubinek (Frenchman)
Chelcie Ross (Trapper)
We were excited about this one before we knew Tom Waits was involved, but now that we know he's headlining one of the film's six chapters, we're positively frothing at the mouth to see this thing. This (sprawling) plot synopsis, via the BFI London Film Festival website, only exacerbates that:
"If you want to fathom the bottomless well that is the Coens’ imagination, look no further. As storytelling goes, this is wildly idiosyncratic, undeniably hilarious and often touchingly melancholic – a cinema-brio study of the American West. Every delectable chapter presents a different story from the wild frontier, with tone and style perfectly calibrated for each tale. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs finds Tim Blake Nelson playing a sharp-shooting songster. In Near Algodones, James Franco’s wannabe bank robber gets his due and then some. And just a little bit more for good measure. Lugubrious dark humour pervades the Liam Neeson starrer Meal Ticket, a gothic tale about two weary travelling performers. Tom Waits mines a rich seam of humour in All Gold Canyon, while Zoe Kazan finds an unexpected promise of love, along with a dose of life’s cruel irony, on a wagon train across the prairies in The Gal Who Got Rattled. Finally, ghostly laughs haunt The Mortal Remains as Tyne Daly rains judgment upon a motley crew of strangers undertaking a final carriage ride. Exquisitely shot by Bruno Delbonnel and intricately designed by Jess Gonchor (with art department contributing stunning colour plate intertitles that introduce each sequence), this is one for true connoisseurs. Bedtime stories for cinema lovers."
Yes. Absolutely yes, to all of this. When do we get to see it? Well, if you're not attending the London Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival, you'll get to see The Ballad of Buster Scruggs when it hits Netflix on November 16th. Stay tuned for more on this one as it becomes available, and please pass the interim debating which Tom Waits album is best in the comments section below.
