Which is the best tale in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs?

I would say:

1. All Gold Canyon
2. The Gal Who Got Rattled
3. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (the first two songs are just great).
4. Meal Ticket (pretty close to #3 in my book).
5. Near Algodones
6. The Mortal Remains (ugh).

Basically agree with your order of preference. Maybe I'd switch Buster Scruggs and Gal Who Got Rattled around but that's it.

I thought "The Girl Who Got Rattled" was just a real tragedy (which I love), a heartbreaking tale. But it also showed the hardship and realities of the West at the time, so it was not only a really good piece of fiction, but also a really good look into how things were. That's true of all the tales, though.

As for my runners-up, I liked the whimsy of "The Mortal Remains" and the one-man-show of Tom Waits in "All Gold Valley".

Really, though, I enjoyed them all.

1. The Girl Who Got Rattled
2. All Gold Valley
3. The Mortal Remains
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5. Meal Ticket
6. Near Algodones

I'm really torn on this movie. I pretty much enjoyed watching it but I felt the anthology format and the stories they used suffered from pacing and tonal shift issues. A friend of mine pointed out that it might have worked better as an anthology series than a movie, where a weaker story would have just been a mediocre episode as opposed to a segment in the middle of a film that drags the pacing to a halt. We didn't even know it was an anthology film until the first segment ended.

The Girl Who Got Rattled, Buster Scruggs, and Near Algodones were probably my favorites. Meal Ticket was my least favorite and it didn't help pacing that it was the third one in. It's not bad but honestly I felt it fit the least with the rest of the stories. Again, as an episode of an anthology show it would have worked better. All Gold Canyon was a really good story, but it murdered the pacing of the film (especially coming on the heels of Meal Ticket). I also really enjoyed Mortal Remains and thought it was a good ending for the film even if it left its own story a bit ambiguous.

-Byshop

1. Gal who got Rattled

2. All Gold Canyon

3. Ballad of Buster Scruggs

4. Algodones

5. The Mortal Remains

6. Meal Ticket

Best moment for me was the opening of Buster Scruggs, that song was so captivating and the accompanying shots fit it perfectly.

Scruggs had the best style, but was too short and lacked substance compared to the other two I put higher. Gal was the most interesting story arc out of the 3.