The Square
2017
***
Director: Ruben Östlund
Cast: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Christopher Læssø, Lilianne Mardon, Lise Stephenson Engström, Marina Schiptjenko, Elijandro Edouard, Daniel Hallberg
While Christian, curator of the X-Royal art museum in Stockholm, prepares to launch a new installation called The Square, his personal and professional life begins to unravel. Ruben Östlund's darkly comic satire exposes the hypocrisy and absurdity of the art world and Christian's private life. The superficiality and pretentiousness of the modern art scene may be an easy target, but Östlund makes some clever and poignant observations. However, at 151 minutes, this is an unwieldy and scattershot film, which often doesn't know when to cut away from a scene.
