LFF 2017: The Square ****

With all the talk of social media impact nowadays on society and its ugly ‘selfie-centred’ nature, the new art project from Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund called The Square is a wonderfully eccentric way to look at human vanity and vulnerability caught up online. In fact, like a lot of his characters, the lead in this, Christian, a chief curator of a stylish Stockholm museum – played by Danish actor Claes Bang – is the epitome of arrogance and privilege that gets Östlund’s classic screen dissection and ‘punishment’ for daring to lord it over the less powerful.

Christian’s super glamorous life unravels after he is a victim of a pick-pocketing crime in an elaborate street heist. His desire to turn amateur sleuth and locate the culprit is as much a danger to his social standing as it is a much-needed inject of ‘excitement’ into his rather gilded existence.

The beauty of this Palme d’Or-winning film is watching a visually titillating fall from grace, as Östlund uses atmospheric moments coupled with stunning – sometimes starkly-lit – cinematography to recreate tension and equally, passion. At the same time he challenges social boundaries in a confrontational manner, using the main art feature of ‘The Square’ in a way that is equally shocking as it is awkwardly ‘hysterical’. The characters, like Christian, fumble in their attempts to regain control as social media and its electronic devices do their dirty work.

Bang is utterly charismatic in the role as our devilish guide on a perilous journey. He is one we initially sympathise with, then covet, and finally ridicule. His respite is a controversial scene which has almost taken over the film’s marketing, with Terry Notary playing a chimpanzee-obsessed performance artist at a museum patrons’ dinner that all goes horrifically wrong. This too, challenges our concepts of what ‘art’ is and where we draw the line.

The Square has great appearances from Dominic West as a visiting artist and The Handmaiden’s Tale‘s Elisabeth Moss as a TV arts correspondent who lives with a real ape and has sexual relations with another (Christian). All the while this supporting cast challenges Christian’s being with intriguing effect that it’s anyone’s guess what fraction of his previous existence will remain when the dust eventually settles.

Again, The Square likes to hold the supposed ‘aspirational’ middle-class Scandinavian lifestyle to account and provoke it in a darkly sinister fashion. Östlund achieves this goal in a beautifully scripted and well-crafted film.

4/5 stars

By @Filmgazer

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