The Square" is a movie that dares to challenge political correctness in its ferociously unhinged tackle of human psyche. What exactly binds us to communicate and be civil to each other is what its writer director Ruben Ostlund asks. The answer is much more complicated than a simple answer and, it seems, that by the movie's end he still hasn't really found the answer to his own question. The episodic nature of "The Square" recalls a hybrid mix of "Leos Carax' "Holy Motors" and Maren Ade's "Toni Erdmann" in its unrestrained attempt at a comedy of manners. It works brilliantly, for the most part, as Ostlund stages one crazed set-piece after another, upping the ante with every one until we arrive to a high-Brow museum dinner featuring a monkey-man terrorizing its guests. I will say no more. In fact, the less you know about "The Square," the better it will likely be. The last 20 or so minutes of this outrageously inventive film have Ostlund struggling to knit his vision together into a satisfying ending. The aforementioned monkey-man sequence, which happens around the 2 hour mark, is so absurdly disgusting, shocking, and need I mention brilliant, that Ostlund just doesn't have anything else to top it off after that. At that point in the film Ostlund had invited us to, with every passing frame, expect the unexpected. The last 20 minutes of the film the writer director decides to take a step back from his antics and build up some kind of emotional substance to his characters and story, a well-intentioned mistake. The brilliant moments in the film should come as no surprise to well-seasoned cinephiles, Ostlund was marked as a talent to watch after "Force Majeure," his 2014 festival hit, put him on the mark with critics worldwide. In that film he used a more subtle tone for his own cringe worthy cinema to focus on the collapse of male manhood in Swedish society. Nevertheless, that film shares many similarities to "The Square" in terms of the tone and unabashedly sardonic wit that Ostlund displays towards his characters and story.
Cannes Review: 'The Square' is unlike anything you've seen before at the movies
The Square" is a movie that dares to challenge political correctness in its ferociously unhinged tackle of human psyche. What exactly binds us to communicate and be civil to each other is what its writer director Ruben Ostlund asks. The answer is much more complicated than a simple answer and, it seems, that by the movie's end he still hasn't really found the answer to his own question. The episodic nature of "The Square" recalls a hybrid mix of "Leos Carax' "Holy Motors" and Maren Ade's "Toni Erdmann" in its unrestrained attempt at a comedy of manners. It works brilliantly, for the most part, as Ostlund stages one crazed set-piece after another, upping the ante with every one until we arrive to a high-Brow museum dinner featuring a monkey-man terrorizing its guests. I will say no more. In fact, the less you know about "The Square," the better it will likely be. The last 20 or so minutes of this outrageously inventive film have Ostlund struggling to knit his vision together into a satisfying ending. The aforementioned monkey-man sequence, which happens around the 2 hour mark, is so absurdly disgusting, shocking, and need I mention brilliant, that Ostlund just doesn't have anything else to top it off after that. At that point in the film Ostlund had invited us to, with every passing frame, expect the unexpected. The last 20 minutes of the film the writer director decides to take a step back from his antics and build up some kind of emotional substance to his characters and story, a well-intentioned mistake. The brilliant moments in the film should come as no surprise to well-seasoned cinephiles, Ostlund was marked as a talent to watch after "Force Majeure," his 2014 festival hit, put him on the mark with critics worldwide. In that film he used a more subtle tone for his own cringe worthy cinema to focus on the collapse of male manhood in Swedish society. Nevertheless, that film shares many similarities to "The Square" in terms of the tone and unabashedly sardonic wit that Ostlund displays towards his characters and story.
