I liked The Square because I didn't really even get a message from it. I honestly don't think there was even a message - unless the message is that everything is contradictory, and NOTHING is ever black and white.
For example, the scene where the main character gets asked by a beggar woman to buy her a sandwich. He apprehensively agrees, and you can see him kind of light up with feeling good doing service, but before he even gets to the counter the beggar woman demands that it have no onions on the sandwich, and she has this entitled and grouchy grimace on her face. So, the main character walks up to the counter, buys her the sandwich, and then gives her the sandwich while slipping in "you can pick your own onions off of it"
So a movie like The Square knows that there is good and bad in everyone, yet it doesn't force that obvious reality down your throat. It just plays out the scenes absurdly.
Absurdity like the fanatical woman who had a one night stand with the curator. As she tries to bring him down and control him, we hear the creaking of an uneasy stack of chairs posing for installation art in the gallery space behind them. This loud and obnoxious chair creaking keeps interrupting her soapbox lecture to her one night lover, and at the end of it all he gets her to admit she's even filthier than he is because she is attracted to his status and power, and that's why she slept with him, not just because she was horny like he was. He just didn't call her is all he's guilty of. So then we have an ugly ego on top of it. A nice little surprise twist that seemed to stifle out the raging fire we smelled the smoke of, taunting us from around the corner unseen.
I laughed plenty at this film. There's a lot to like about it. Structure and proper narrative? No. It reflects what art is in that, these rules and regulations for digestible linear-like explanations are really at the mercy of people who can get their own meanings out of them. In that regard the film excelled. Ironically, I shaved some of my score off for the lack of transcendence that the script could not deliver on. I was looking for a message, and I didn't get one, that is - until now, when I threw my thoughts down about the film again.
Good art always allows the audience to hold the brush and finish it off.
For example, the scene where the main character gets asked by a beggar woman to buy her a sandwich. He apprehensively agrees, and you can see him kind of light up with feeling good doing service, but before he even gets to the counter the beggar woman demands that it have no onions on the sandwich, and she has this entitled and grouchy grimace on her face. So, the main character walks up to the counter, buys her the sandwich, and then gives her the sandwich while slipping in "you can pick your own onions off of it"
So a movie like The Square knows that there is good and bad in everyone, yet it doesn't force that obvious reality down your throat. It just plays out the scenes absurdly.
Absurdity like the fanatical woman who had a one night stand with the curator. As she tries to bring him down and control him, we hear the creaking of an uneasy stack of chairs posing for installation art in the gallery space behind them. This loud and obnoxious chair creaking keeps interrupting her soapbox lecture to her one night lover, and at the end of it all he gets her to admit she's even filthier than he is because she is attracted to his status and power, and that's why she slept with him, not just because she was horny like he was. He just didn't call her is all he's guilty of. So then we have an ugly ego on top of it. A nice little surprise twist that seemed to stifle out the raging fire we smelled the smoke of, taunting us from around the corner unseen.
I laughed plenty at this film. There's a lot to like about it. Structure and proper narrative? No. It reflects what art is in that, these rules and regulations for digestible linear-like explanations are really at the mercy of people who can get their own meanings out of them. In that regard the film excelled. Ironically, I shaved some of my score off for the lack of transcendence that the script could not deliver on. I was looking for a message, and I didn't get one, that is - until now, when I threw my thoughts down about the film again.
Good art always allows the audience to hold the brush and finish it off.