Review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

As several people have mentioned, this is an anthology of short stories about the old West, with no character or plot continuity among them. Some of them are strikingly good, but the great majority, particularly the second-to-the-last one about a wagon train, also have sad or tragic endings. Only the one about panning for gold, with Tom Waits as the main character, can truly be said to end happily. I realize a happy ending is a cliche and not necessarily required in a movie, but an anthology of stories, almost all of them tragic, left me feeling impressed, but rather bleak.