The Square (2017)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoy arthouse films, and I really enjoy films about art. But not when they yield whatever this "movie" was. This film was the guy-in-Starbucks-on-his-macbook-sipping-his-$8-latte-while-checking-his-iPhone X-posting-about-the-horrors-of-capitalism levels of pretentious. I am just in awe at how this passed screenings and people didn't exclaim, "What the hell was that even about?". The first half of the film is amusing, although every single character was unlikable and overbearingly annoying. They all exuded levels of narcissism and superiority that make it really hard to invest in what they were doing. Modern art is hit-or-miss, at best, and all of the "Art" shown in this movie was a huge miss. But you wouldn't know it from the way these talent-less hacks would rave about the most mundane looking pieces that any Renaissance artist was laugh at.Unfortunately, the second half of the film falls of a cliff and nosedives into the jagged rocks below. After a horrible and hilarious cringey live performance, the movie devolves into people looking intently at their phones, making garbled conversation, and just being painfully boring. Seriously, I have seen some boring movies in my time, but this film really takes the cake in that NOTHING OF INTEREST OR ARTISTIC VALUE GOES ON FOR MOST OF IT!!! I' m sorry for the yelling, but in truth, anyone who says that they are "affected" or "touched" by this is delusional, and is simply hoping that others see them the way they see themselves. This movie is made for people that don't enjoy movies themselves, but enjoy talking about movies in a bid to appear intellectual.Overall, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. It just isn't special, it isn't that funny, and at 2 hours at 30 minutes, it overstays it's welcome by at least 1 hour and 15 minutes. Don't sit through this and groan in embarrassment for most of it like I did. It's just not worth it.

It is basically a very realistic look at how things would happen. The director has a choice of scenes from the general story he's aiming at. And it is the slow realism that makes the scenes funny as well as connectable. If you can't connect with it in depth, you won't like it. I watched it in theater once and at home once and the feel was totally different in the two cases. The vision of the movie seems conflicted and confused at times. But I guess it is because the director is not working towards a plot, but showing society which is probably mostly just as confused. I liked the scenes a lot.

A clever, and insightful, but somewhat meandering, social satire that, in hindsight, feels more like a series of vignettes loosely connected by the films protagonist, a well-known museum curator. The satirical sections that focus on the Modern Art world are dead on, although with, perhaps too much restraint. For the most part they are so understated you might find yourself wondering if the filmmakers were intentionally being satiric; except for, obviously, the film's high-point "Welcome to the Jungle" - both its most humorous and chilling sequence - which literally has a punchline at the end. It could easily be argued the film is worth watching for this section alone. Primarily concerned with how individuals interact with society and the world around them, scenes often play out with the camera focused on one character's reaction as opposed to the action, or conversation, occurring off-screen. This can be a disorienting choice, and, at times, confusing, yet undoubtedly all that is intentional. But be warned, the film will make no attempt to tie up all its lose ends: some characters just drop out of sight, storylines are left dangling and the movie just comes to a stop as opposed to having a real climax. You can be left feeling poked and prodded by the film for having watched it, as opposed to rewarded. But, hey, it's Art.

This is, no doubt for me, one of the worst movies ever.