119. The Square; movie review

THE SQUARE
Cert 15
151 mins
BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, sexual threat, strong sex

Even though I am into my eighth year of trying to watch every movie released in the UK, I would not describe myself as an art connoisseur.
However, I have to admit that I probably would not have enjoyed Ruben Östlund's The Square as much in 2011 as I did in 2018.
This is an intelligent and incisive satire on the world of contemporary art which also throws up some thought-provoking social questions.
There are string of early scenes which set the tempo, including a TV interview with Christian (Claes Bang), the outwardly super-confident curator-in-chief of a major Swedish art gallery.
The journalist (Elizabeth Moss) asks only two questions - one to ask what makes his job so difficult (when it clearly isn't) and the other to explain a forthcoming exhibition which has been dressed up in typically impenetrable arty language. He can't.
Christian's life takes a turn when he helps a distressed woman in a busy city centre thoroughfare and becomes a victim of a distraction robbery.
I have read that this is based on a real-life experience of the director, although I doubt that his subsequent reaction would have been as bizarre as Christian's
As the fall-out of the crime washes through, the gallery lurches from one 'crisis' to another because Christian has taken his eye off the ball.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of sparkling tangents from the serious narrative - a stage interview with him which is disrupted by an audience member with Tourette's syndrome (another re-enactment of a real-life Östlund episode) and a startling performance of an artist (Terry Notary) pretending to be an angry ape during a black-tie dinner at the gallery.
The Square poses the age-old question about abstract art and while also probing society's priorities through repetitive images of people sleeping rough near the gallery where benefactors are handing over tens of millions of pounds.
It makes the audience wonder whether we care more about things than people.
Bang is terrific in the lead role, outwardly brash but privately crippled by self-doubt.
I often make my mind up about my mark for a film within five minutes of seeing it. The Square is different. Twelve hours after watching it, its themes have fermented in my mind to such an extent, I now reckon it is one of the best of 2018 so far.

Reasons to watch: Stylish, funny and very unusual
Reasons to avoid: Might be a bit too subtle for some

Laughs: Four
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 9/10

Director's statement - Ruben Östlund: "We have to realise that some problems that we are dealing with, we can’t solve on an individual level. We have to solve them together. For example, when it comes to beggars, and things like that. If I give an individual a couple of coins, I will never change the life situation of that person."

The big question - Why do so few have compassion for the homeless?

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