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THE SQUARE | FILM REVIEW

****

Dir: Ruben Östlund

Starring: Claes Bang, Elizabeth Moss, Dominic West

(15, 2hrs 22 mins)

The director of the brilliant Force Majeure returns with this squirm-inducing satire that unsettles and provokes in equal measure. Claes Bang plays the director of an arts museum, ambitious, slick and convinced of his own sense of superiority. He wants his contemporary art museum to make a splash so sets about creating a controversial  installation, called the Square, where visitors have to be behave responsibly.

When his mobile phone is stolen by ingenious pickpockets he begins to unravel. Angered at their daring, he determines to track them down and his growing mental unrest infects the rest of the film’s proceedings. He has a sexual encounter with Elisabeth Moss’ TV interviewer that sours after an argument over a condom and discovery of a strange pet. A grand formal dinner at the museum descends into cruel absurdity as performance artist Oleg ‘entertains’ the guests by being an ape.

Played by Terry Notary, one of the mo-cap actors for Planet of the Apes, this becomes a deeply unsettling sequence as method actor Oleg takes matters too far. The whole film seems to be performance art, with the central character somehow caught up in a loop of his own making. Östlund manages to keep the bizarre events intriguing, toying with the audience, at times testing our patience, but ultimately keeping us grimly engaged. Bang remains a bit of an enigma as the central character, representing liberal white privilege as the scenes change in tone around him at an alarming rate.

Östlund questions and dissects skewering the artifice of self-important culture with aplomb in a queasy mix of comedy and drama, that although not entirely successful, leaves plenty to ponder upon.

words KEIRON SELF

Out now in cinemas.