Search: Directed by Ethan Coen

Scruggs still suffers from the problem that afflicts too many other anthologies - not all the tales come up to the same level in telling the essentially Coen-esque truth over and over.

It is not as though we have not seen this sort of comic crime-gone-wrong chaos from the Coens before, but there is no-one who does it better.

This is one of the few films I've seen where a length of ribbon drew a round of applause.

Either the Coens have no conception of reality, or the people they write about lost the place half way between there and here.

The Coens' obvious fun in concocting scenes of mid-century paranoia is infectious.

The pace may seem deliberate but the Coens obviously want us to uncover the character's layers gently rather than him being delivered ready-made.

The script excels.

Against the whisper of wind and buzz of flies, the Coens manage to find tension in the subtlest of movements and cut the dialogue through with humour as arid as the landscape.

It is like nibbling for nearly two hours in the kitchens of the best chefs. At the end we are exhausted and hungry.

A fine example of the uniquely offbeat, demonstrative, allusive cinema that only Joel and Ethan Coen can deliver.

Where Roberts' screenplay opted at times for easy sentiment the Coens' writing is not only wittier but also as chilly as a late Oklahoma autumn.