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10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 NOVEMBER 2018 FILM FILM THROUGHOUT their sto- ried and decorated film career, the Coen Brothers have only ever made one 'proper' West- ern – the Jeff Bridges-starring True Grit (2010), which went back to the source material to re-adapt a genre classic by Charles Portis, previously re- leased as a John Wayne vehicle back in 1968. But given their penchant for archetypal characters and sto- rytelling, as well as a mythic approach to Americana both contemporary and historical, it could also be said that this time- less-yet-flexible genre offers the perfect breeding ground for the duo's sensibilities, and can be felt in at least a large chunk of all of their many films. With The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a six-part anthology film that sees the cinematically monastic brothers leap into the Netflix universe, they are once again allowing themselves the in- dulgence of scratching the West- ern itch in a far more explicit way. Fully embracing the cosmetic nostalgia that rings the entire project, 'Ballad' begins with the titular story – literally a written story within the artifice of the world we're thrown into, which begins as a hand cracks open a vintage anthology of prose nar- ratives about the Old West, all illustrated with a quaintly hand- painted frontispiece. Starring Tim Blake Nelson – a Coen Brothers veteran of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a similarly boisterous and hyper- stylised historical romp -- that first segment does a neat enough job of setting the right tone, shifting from jocular to psychot- ic in a gunslinger's heartbeat. This is the kind of tonal juggling that lesser filmmakers – that is, most filmmakers who aren't the Coens – would fail miserably at but which here proceeds at a sharp and steady clip, moving from action-laced black comedy to whimsical melancholy and achingly suppressed romance, before finally dovetailing into a Gothic chamber piece – or rath- er, 'carriage piece' – that does in a few minutes what Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight painfully attempted to squeeze out in three torturous hours. As the segments roll on, an- other more interesting sugges- tion worms its way through… the idea that the anthology ap- proach is the Coens' cheeky way of short-circuiting the Netflix formula. While not episodic in nature – each of the segments is a self-contained story in its own right – this is a call-back to a vin- tage approach to short-form sto- rytelling that certainly precedes our current binge-watching boom, and is recreated master- fully here (showing the turning pages of the book itself is the nostalgic coup de grace) With a confidence unmatched by other contemporary film- makers – a trait that has held the brothers in good stead since pretty much day one – the Coens expertly navigate the shifts in mood, tone and narrative pace that the various segments de- mand, visibly delighting in the variety allowed by the format. Individual mileage will vary given the nature of the beast, but it also means you get six Coen outings for the price of one. Which can never really be a bad thing. The Coen Brothers bring their barely- blemished cinematic record to the streaming- screens with this Netf lix-exclusive anthology of Western stories ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE WILD WILD WEST THE RIDICULOUS 6 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The verdict WITH their trademark brand of mordant wit and sleek sto- rytelling skills, the Coen Broth- ers win at the Netflix game on their own terms. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may not be the filmmaking duo's most vaunt- ed or ambitious project – not by a long shot – but it remains a hugely satisfying confection whose hidden depths as elusive as they are convincing. Burst- ing with charm and sneaking in a beguiling darkness in each segment, it certainly makes for a worthwhile and high-quality two-hour lapse in your binge- watching schedule. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is currently streaming on Net- flix Six-gun stories from the masters of cinema T H E B A L L A D O F B U ST E R S C R U G G S ( 16 + ) Teodor Reljic