Review of The Square (2017) by Andrewburge — 01 Apr 2018

The world of Ruben Östlund's The Square is a lawless one. No, I don't mean Mad Max type lawless, not even close. It is rather tame, yet there seems to literally be no presence of order and law enforcement in it. The scene in which Christian, the curator of the X-Art Museum of Modern Arts, has his goods stolen from him is treated with laughter and amazement at the skills of the perpetrators, rather than anger and a swoop to the police. In fact, the Police is not even mentioned. Rather, he prefers to take matters into his own hands distributing threatening letters to an apartment block where he believes the thief lives. And... it works. It is clear that Ruben Östlund is aware of the illogical actions and the near surreal world he creates.

Yet despite the visual expression of social isolation, 'The Square's style of enclosing itself from the real world into one in which it loosely parodies the life of the modern man creates confusion through its subtle approach. It does not have true surreal moments, yet it expects us to treat it metaphorically. Sure, it succeeds in representing the way the modern and cultured man is so self-controller that it can easily be taken as a fool, but there is an unnatural unease to every action.

There is, of course, one brilliant scene of performance art from Terry Notary's Oleg Rogozin, who, while performing as an ape during a luxurious dinner, loses his mind, for some ubiquitous reason, and so the guests themselves have to physically put him to the ground. This latter part of the scene is a bit unnecessary and rather bizarre.

Still, 'The Square' has monumental ambitions and through is intentional or unintentional absurdity takes its claim into revolutionizing the way movies are thought, even though, it kinda fails...