'The Square' A Review

The Square is a Swedish satire about modern art museum curator Christian(Claes Bang), his personal foibles and the pretension of modern art. Christian gets his phone and wallet stolen, tracks it, and delivers letters demanding them back to the entire apartment building. Concurrently he is working on opening a new exhibit, the titular Square, which is a rectangle of light in which anyone can ask for help or something like that. After a misconceived promotional video and his anonymous letters receive backlash Christian has to grapple with personal and professional turmoil.

All the actors do their duty and the production elements are beyond competent however the subject matter and script are obvious, boring, and uninspired. Perhaps something is lost in translation as the Sweden portrayed in the film is insufferable and oblivious. Modern Art as a subject for mockery is easy, its low hanging fruit, and there is an element that feels cowardly about it. The filmmaker is "protected" from artistic criticism by his very transparent condescension of modern art. The concept is very obvious, reductive, and tired. Calling something out for being dumb while simultaneously participating in it is classic art school cowardice. Boring.

The other aspect of the film that falls flat is the pseudo critique/comment of class. The film endeavours to make some statement about homelessness and privilege juxtaposing numerous shots of beggars being ignored on the streets with Christian driving in his Tesla. However nothing coherent or meaningful ever really comes from this avenue because the homeless are bafflingly repeatedly portrayed as entitled, rude, and fat and despite Christian's obnoxious pretension the film can't help but attempt to elicit sympathy for him. It is definitely apparent that writer/director Ruben Östlund has a wry affection for his protagonist but it is frustratingly unclear why. These two thematic issues on top of numerous others from performance to tone to the bloated run time.

As this year's Palme d'Or winner I can only guess that this is the kind of thing that Europe views as provocative but here in the US it is easy, pedantic, post-modern swill that was stale fifteen years ago.

Too cool to have a message, too cowardly to bite.

Don't See It.