The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: 3 stars
Near Algodones: 3 stars
Meal Ticket: 2 1/2 stars
All Gold Canyon: 5 stars
The Girl Who Got Rattled: 4 stars
The Mortal Remains: 2 stars

This movie: unflinching.

Me: extremely flinching.

For the first hour, I felt like Cuarón's formalism was keeping me at a distance, like the film was something more to be admired than felt.

Then the second hour proceeded to kick me in the teeth (emotionally).

Really wanted to love this. L.A. crime, bank robberies, shootouts and desert meth cults. Not to mention I thought Kusama's The Invitation was great. Unfortunately, this fell pretty short of expectations.

Kidman is strong and the script has a clever structure, but the movie doesn't have the sense to see the flashbacks are the most interesting part. And then there's the last five minutes with a forced-catharsis that is a complete miscalculation.

Also, Toby Kebbell is completely miscast as the "big bad."