Museum-set satire on exhibit in ‘Square’
Another Cannes Palme d’Or-winning, box-office non-starter, “The Square” tells the provocative, existential tale of a few days in the life of a wealthy Stockholm museum director.
His day begins when his wallet and phone are taken (or lost) after a strange, near violent confrontation in a public place on his way to the office. Christian Nielsen (a tall and artfully stubbled Claes Bang) has problems getting the latest cutting-edge art for Stockholm’s Royal Museum because the museum’s pockets are not as deep as the private collectors of the world.
In the course of his day, Christian, whose progress toward enlightenment may mirror that of the samenamed hero of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” will be interviewed by an American journalist living in Stockholm named Anne (Elisabeth Moss). Christian lets a young assistant named Michael (Christopher Laesso) talk him into putting letters accusing every resident in a building in a rough neighborhood of stealing his missing phone. Is this a good idea?
Written and directed by Ruben Ostlund, whose 2014 family drama “Force Majeure” was more engaging
and less contrived than this lengthy thumb-sucker, “The Square” takes its name from an art installation placed in front of the museum, a lighted square in bricks that is supposed to be a zone of trust and comfort. But nothing in Christian’s life is comforting and no one can be trusted, certainly not the two nitwit promoters, who put together a video about the show that they intend to go viral.
The present day Stockholm we see has a serious homeless problem with many beggars in the streets, many of them immigrants. The promoters’ pitch concerns making a video of a blond-haired beggar child entering the square and then something memorable happening. The memorable thing they forgot to mention but put out on YouTube is the little girl being blown to smithereens.
To make matters worse, Christian decides against his better judgment to go to bed with Anne, who is strange and has a strange pet. In the film’s most memorable scene, a man named Oleg (Terry Notary, “War for the Planet of the Apes”), pretending to be an ape, puts on a show for the rich and mostly elderly museum sponsors. The act gets entirely out of hand in a way echoing Hollywood’s current sexual harassment scandal, and the men in the party finally gang up to attack the performer.
My other favorite bit concerns a museum worker who damages an installation of piles of gravel with a Zamboni-like cleaning machine. Is it art or is it trash? The same might be asked of many films.
(“The Square” contains violence, nudity and a sexually suggestive scene.)