An Oscar nominee in the “Best Foreign Language Film” for this year’s Awards, Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square” is a Swedish film that deserves that nomination. It deals with issues of homelessness in Sweden, unity amongst people in a crowd, modern art and the troubles and benefits of negative publicity.
The film's plot is centered around an art museum’s newest addition, a piece titled “The Square”, and the museum’s attempt to garner public attention to the piece’s exhibition with the help of a PR team, which leads to mass controversy. The script was very well-written; the story unfolded very naturally and the characters felt very believable, which was also reinforced by the strong acting from most of the actors.
The main character Christian, the curator of the museum, is the most relatable, as he gets into many strange situations and handles them in a sometimes irrational but always human way that never goes out of his character. The film’s design and cinematography were both fantastic with great shot variety and framing. There were many scenes where characters were framed in a square shape in the film’s world, like a window or staircase.
There is a certain scene near the end that deserves mention; a beautiful, long take from above with Christian and his daughters climbing an apartment staircase. The sound design and music were good as well.
The only negative things I would have to say about the film are: there were several scenes that felt fairly pretentious and Christian’s daughters did not serve much purpose to the film. Scenes that were centered around them felt unnecessary and their acting wasn't anything special. With this, however, “The Square” is still a great film that I would recommend. It is not for everybody and I would definitely not watch it with my mom or any children but it is an intelligent film for any adult who wants something unique from cinema.
