Review of The Square (2017) by Erik B. A — 02 Mar 2018

Oscar nominee for best Foreign Film and the follow-up to 2015's critically acclaimed Force Majeure, a film I personally find over-indulgent and overlong even though the premise is intriguing; writer-director Ruben Ostlund doubles down on all the things I dislike last time and this 2h 22m long film ends up winning the Palme d'Or.

Go figure. Claes Bang plays the tall and handsome curator of a contemporary art museum in Sweden that's about to unveil its latest exhibit, the Square, when a minor criminal act done to him begins the slow unravelling of his life.

Predominantly an exploration of the male white guilt, it also comments upon modern art; the desensitization of poverty and street beggars; the prejudice immigrants face everyday; freedom of speech; and the power dynamics between the sexes.

.. and that is just off the top of my head as I am sure there are others I've missed, in Ostlund's elaborate and all-encompassing essay that has far too many ideas struggling for space, which the film handles with the surreal grace and elegance of a gorilla cutting steel with a blunt knife.

Artfully composed with striking imageries, there is a nicely observed 90 mins film here with the right (i.e. a lot!) editing but this bloated film just goes on and on, as Dominic West and Elisabeth Moss wander in briefly in inconsequential cameos, until its predictable and absurd end.

This is definitely not a film for me, or anyone who thinks 142m is a ridiculous amount of time to spend on an arty film that has little to say other than yell out a list of things the developed Western society has to atone for.