Movie: The Square

To get the most out of director Ruben Östlund’s latest movie, The Square, it’s probably best not to read too much about the content.

Not knowing what was going to happen next was one of the joys of watching this movie. Not that everything that happened necessarily made sense!

What’s good to know is The Square, the winner of the 2017 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, brilliantly satirises aspects of the contemporary art world.

It also targets those who advocate empathy, charity and understanding of those less fortunate, but who don’t necessarily practise what they preach. The power of social media is also spotlighted.

The movie takes its name from ‘The Square’, a new exhibit at Stockholm’s X-Royal Museum, a contemporary art institution that seeks to `stir and shake’ museum goers with its high-minded installations.

The Square is an approximately 10-by-10-foot space on the ground, which proclaims itself as an oasis of kindness and peace.

The man promoting the exhibition is the museum’s curator Christian (Claes Bang), a good looking, very confident divorced father of two. He drives an electric car and considers himself a caring, compassionate humanitarian. Needless to say, when faced with several major personal occurrences, his actions don’t live up to those ideals.

Bang gives a great performance and is ably supported by Elisabeth Moss as an American journalist, Dominic West as an artist and Terry Notary as a method actor who goes `full ape’.

At times The Square is laugh-out loud funny. At other times it is rather silly and confusing. It’s often ironic and very thought provoking.  With a running time of 142 minutes it’s also long!  But mostly it is very entertaining.

The Square is showing in selected cinemas around Australia.  Visit the Sharmill Films website for more information.