The Coen Brothers direct Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson and Tom Waites in this comical western anthology that takes in the mortality and skewed morality of the wild frontier.

No one will make an argument for this being Joel and Ethan’s best work. It is by its very nature bitty and inconsequential. That doesn’t stop it from being a visual marvel, full of slapstick comicality and wry assessment on luck, fate and death. Tom Waites has the best vignette as a lone prospector. Liam Neeson’s dark fable about market forces in the entertainment business feels particularly barbed and rich. All the horses are scene stealing bit part players. The literary framing device is neat and in on their narrative tricks. A fine afternoon killer. 

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