BEFORE: I thought that maybe I could squeeze in the new "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" sequel here, because it has Eka Darville in it, and she was also in "Her Smell" - as I was typing up the cast list yesterday I recognized that name. And tonight's film has Terry Notary in it, I know he's worked on the last couple "Planet of the Apes" movies as a model for the CGI simians, so I thought, great, let me sandwich in another summer blockbuster here, so it's not really on theme, so what? But then oddly, I could NOT find Notary's name in the IMDB credits, though his character was mentioned on the Wikipedia page as being in the prologue of "Kingdom". Hmm, that's odd, Rocket is there but the actor's not credited with an appearance. I can't take the chance, if the voice of Terry Notary isn't in the film, that would be a break in the chain. I can't take that chance after coming 214 films in to this year. It reminds me of how I wanted to use Nicolas Cage as a link from "The Flash" to "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse", but then I found out that they put his Spider-Man Noir character in the sequel, only they didn't give that character any dialogue, so therefore they didn't have to pay Nicolas Cage. Very sneaky, and this is the kind of thing that can easily trip me up if I'm not careful. So I'll have to find another way to link to "K.O.T.P.O.T.A.", it stays on the list but I'm not watching it this week.
Elisabeth Moss carries over from "Her Smell".
THE PLOT: A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.
AFTER: I don't want to forget that I kicked off this Movie Year with a film set in Sweden, that was "The Worst Person in the World", now since then I've been all over the world, from Ireland ("The Secret of Kells", "The Banshees of Inisherin") to Italy ("Mafia Mamma", "Book Club: the Next Chapter", "A Haunting in Venice", "1900") and Africa ("The Woman King", "Beast"), under the ocean ("The Little Mermaid" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom") and then to outer space ("Stowaway", "The Marvels", "Rebel Moon") and even some lands that don't exist ("Slumberland", "Peter Pan & Wendy", "Disenchanted'). But now it seems I've circled back to Sweden, where this trip began.
I get the reason why Terry Notary popped up, he plays a performance artist who acts like a monkey, a savage predator though, one that moves around a room full of fancy museum donators and guests, treating them like his playthings and then like other primates that he needs to exert his dominance over. (Yes, but is it ART?). The inspiration for this came from a real performance artist, Oleg Kulik, who performs as a dog, and apparently got in some trouble for biting one of a museum's guests.
Well, that's the question, isn't it? The lead character is the curator for a MOCA, a museum of contemporary art, and the interview he gives at the start of the film clues us in on some of the challanges involved in running a modern museum, always trying to stay current or even ahead of the curve, despite never having the funds to compete with millionaire or billionaire collectors who don't have the expenses of, you know, running a museum. Sure, I get it, especially now that people can look up any piece of art on their computer or phone, why pay admission to a museum when the internet is free? It's just like running a restaurant, what are you offering to diners that they can't get at home? (Or at Mom's house, she charges nothing and serves up the food she knows you like.)
So the museums have to change with the times, offer something that no other museum has, whether it's the best collection of dinosaur skeletons, or the most Rodin sculptures in one place, or they have to do something original or slightly shocking that has a chance of going viral. Here in NYC the big new thing is these "experiential" exhibits, where they project Van Gogh night skies or Monet's water lilies all over the walls and ceiling of a room, so you feel like you're somehow IN the painting rather than just looking at it on a wall.
I'm stalling here, because this was a really tough film to figure out - like, is it a drama or a comedy? Is it meant to be taken seriously, or is this just a bunch of random events strung together in a semi-serious way? Like, are the funny parts just funny or is it trying just a bit too hard to find some comedy in this man's life? What about the commentary on relationships? Curator Christian gets involved with that woman who interviewed him, they have very awkward sex and an even more awkward conversation about it, and they're just really not on the same page. Is this just more comedy, or is this a serious comment on how two people can view the same encounter very differently.
NITPICK POINT: He doesn't even ASK her about the chimpanzee? LIke, that would be my first question, like "Hey, did you just see a chimpanzee walk through your apartment?" Or maybe, "Hey, is that YOUR chimp? Just asking." or even "Wait, do you see it too?" Yes, I'm open to the idea that the monkey is not really there, because that's only slightly weirder than the monkey being there. Perhaps this is a figment of Christian's imaginaiton, but if that's the case, I have no idea what it symbolizes. Obviously the Big Monkey Energy runs strong through this movie, so it's too bad I couldn't pair it with "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes", we could have had another Hot Monkey Summer instead of Ratboy Summer or whatever the hell that weird trend was a couple months ago.
I do kind of dig how the small events in this film spiral out of control, like when the marketing team has come up with an idea for a great viral video, or so they think. Christian has so much going on in his life that he basically approves the idea without really LOOKING at it, and then later in the film he ends up paying the price for this. Also another plot point is that Christian gets scammed out in the streets, classic dstraction move by a team of pickpockets, they create an emergency situation and when Christian steps in to help, he loses his phone, his wallet and even his cufflinks.
There's no situation that Christian can't make worse, it seems, by trying to solve things. His friend (roommate? partner?) Michael is able to track his stolen phone to a particular building, but the pair have no idea which apartment the thieves might live in, so they come up with a great plan, write a threatening letter demanding the delivery of the stolen items to the local 7-Eleven, and slide a copy of the letter under each door in the buildilng. Sure, 37 apartments will get this letter and be very confused, but 1 will get it and think they've been caught, so they'll return the items or face prosecution. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?
That's pretty much the engine driving the whole plot of this movie - or really, almost every movie - what could possibly go wrong? For example, there's an art exhibit which is just large piles of colored sand on the floor of a gallery. (Yeah, but is it ART?). Imagine what could happen at the museum if the janitor hadn't been properly told about the exhibit, and you get the idea. Hey, let's have a performance artist act like a gorilla when he interacts with a crowd of well-dressed benefactors? Again, WCPGW? A museum curator is pitched an idea about an interactive exhibit that makes a statement about homeless people, WCPGW? Two people have sex after a party and one is in a position of power and the other one isn't? Well, you get the idea.
Some things are very confusing, like who is the woman that Christian interacts with near the end of the film, is that his ex-wife, or his boss, or a publicist? I couldn't figure it out, and the subtitles were no help (Yes, most of the film is in Swedish, I did not know that going in, but never fear, there are English captions.). Also, the movie did not need to be two and a half hours long, I'm sure with a little effort some editor could have found a way to speed a few things up and some small details could have been dropped to get this down to 190 minutes - 2 hours 10 is a much more accessible run time than 2 hours 30.
But if this film is about anything, it might be about where the inspiration for art comes from - like Christian getting his wallet stolen leads to an exhibit where museum guests are asked to leave their wallet on the floor before they walk into the next space, to test whether they trust other people or not (or I guess, whether they SHOULD) and then of course, the random monkey appearance precedes the performance art piece where a man acts like a monkey. So I guess we can connect the dots and see that the events in Christian's life sort of inspire these museum exhibits. OK, so where's the exhibit depicting two people having very awkward sex?
If this review is posting late, I apologize, I had scheduled a colonoscopy for Thursday (my first, I opted to do a diffferent testing method 6 years ago) so my whole sleeping and eating schedule has been upended - and my sleeping schedule was terrible to being with, thanks to my second job that often has me working irregular hours. Anyway, "The Square" counts as my Wednesday movie and I'll probably skip Thursday and report back here on Friday, OK? Thanks for understanding. Really, any excuse to skip a day I should probably take, because at this point that could just shift more movies into November or December, if my estimated count is correct.
Also starrning Claes Bang (last seen in "The Northman"), Dominic West (last seen in "Colette"), Terry Notary (last seen in "Nope"), Christopher Laesso, Lise Stephenson Engstrom, Lilianne Mardon, Marina Schiptjenko, Annica Liljeblad, Elijnadro Edouard, Daniel Hallberg, Martin Sööder, John Nordling, Maja Gödicke, Nicki Dar, Sofie Hamilton, Robert Hjelm, Jonas Dahlborn, Sofica Ciuranu, Stefan Gödicke (last seen in "Triangle of Sadness"), Mia Svenheimer, Per Magnus Johansson, Copos Pardaliam, Pierre Elmqvist, Madeleine Barwen Trollvik, Kolya Hardy, Janet Leon and the voice of Pauline Hansson.
RATING: 6 out of 10 curses shouted by a man with Tourette's syndrome
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