Review of The Square (2017) by Filipe C — 16 Nov 2017

After the much-talked about, quietly explosive Force Majeure, Ruben Ostlund returns to the big screen with The Square, an exciting, too-big-to-fail endeavor that will go down in the annals of film history for its extraordinarily provocative set pieces.

The narrative gets going when Christian (Claes Bang in a memorable role), the chief curator at the modern art museum in Stockholm, announces the museum's most recent acquisition: The Square, "a sanctuary of trust and caring.

Within all share equal rights and obligations." The piece instills Christian with introspective thoughts, and after his phone gets stolen, this upper-class, quasi-celebrity gets caught in an existential crisis.

During Christian's extravagant and unpredictable journey, Ostlund satirizes to great effect the hypocrisy of modern art, social strata divide, and faux notions of identity. As the narrative progresses, The Square highlights the 'high v.

low' dichotomy every chance it gets, pushing all kinds of boundaries with rare fearlessness, making this an uncomfortable, but consistently rewarding cinematic experience. Fresh off the Palm D'Or at Cannes, The Square will hardly be a crowd-pleaser, but it's exactly the type of fierce, observant and tridimensional cinema that can shake up outdated conventions.