The Square, Violet and Daisy

The Square

Ruben Ostlund's The Square is a fairly effective satire for most of its 151 minutes, an achievement, but it bites off more than it can chew, much less masticate. It concerns the director of a modernist museum in Stockholm, ably played by Claes Bang, whose life descends into chaos within the course of a week or so. The film touches upon immigration, postmodernism, violence, divorce, art world pretensions, disability rights, Me Too and a host of other current memes with a bracing manner. I was never bored.

Elizabeth Moss is excellent, as usual, as a museum newbie who has ambivalent fling with her director. However, Dominic West's artist barely registers. Ostlund tries too many surreal effects that come off as strained, particularly the pet ape in Moss' apartment. When Bang's character loses his job and reconnects with his two daughters, we are led to believe that he has lost the world and gained his soul, but the insight seems dubious because it is not felt.

Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan in Violet and Daisy

Geoffrey Fletcher's Violet and Daisy, from 2013, is a first feature that I found to be slightly better than its putrid reputation. Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan play a hit woman duo who bond with one of their targets. The film lay on the shelf for awhile and feels mangled at 88 minutes. Fletcher, like many former film students, borrows liberally from what he has seen. The intertitles employed evoke Wes Anderson, as does the twee tone. The narrative is reminiscent of Tarantino, Mexican standoffs alternating with soliloquies. The two leads are good though Bledel resembles a faun too much to conjure a hard bitten appearance. Fletcher gets a very fine and restrained turn from James Gandolfini as the target of the hit with an issue or two. Fletcher nicely develops the twin themes of arrested development, this time with a gender twist, and ambivalent familial bonds. The film never fully succeeds, but stays in the mind. A mixed bag. (5/4/18)