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.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.9/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.62/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Ruben Östlund
Production
Plattform Produktion, ARTE France Cinéma, Coproduction Office, Essential Filmproduktion, Imperative Entertainment, SVT
Cast
Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Christopher Læssø, Lise Stephenson Engström, Lilianne Mardon, Marina Schiptjenko, Annica Liljeblad, Elijandro Edouard, Daniel Hallberg, Martin Sööder, John Nordling, Maja Gödicke, Nicki Dar, Josephine Schneider, Sofie Hamilton, Robert Hjelm, Anna-Stina Malmborg, Gunnar Häglund
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, often very funny satire of the art world and liberal self-image, with enough formal control and escalating discomfort to make its provocations land. It can feel overstuffed and blunt, but the set pieces are memorable and the social cringe is the point.
Best for
Viewers who like biting social satire
Fans of uncomfortable comedy-drama
People interested in art-world hypocrisy and privilege
Audiences who enjoy films that spark debate
Skip if
You want a warm, emotionally tidy story
You dislike satire that repeats its point loudly
You prefer subtle, character-first drama
You have little patience for long, awkward social set pieces
Overview
The Square is Ruben Östlund at his most pointed: a chilly, funny, and deliberately abrasive satire of privilege, performance, and the fragile rituals that keep polite society from collapsing. Set inside a museum but aimed far beyond it, the film turns curatorial language, donor culture, and public virtue into a series of escalating embarrassments that are hard to watch and harder to dismiss.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the precision of the discomfort. Östlund stages scenes that feel both absurd and recognizably real, then lets them run long enough for the social dynamics to curdle. The result is a film that can seem schematic in the moment yet leaves behind a strong aftertaste, especially in its funniest and most humiliating passages.
Bottom line
It is also a film of mixed pleasures: sprawling, self-conscious, and occasionally too eager to underline its thesis. But the craftsmanship is undeniable, and the best scenes are the kind that provoke laughter, dread, and secondhand embarrassment all at once. If you like your satire sharp-edged and a little merciless, this is an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
chris (4★) · 4098 likes
guy behind me, when the square came on screen: "that's the square"
Justin LaLiberty (3.5★) · 2872 likes
Much better than The Circle.
matt lynch (3.5★) · 1599 likes
So you've got a heavy-handed, sorta clumsy piece of art concerning inclusive spaces, unexamined privilege, and performative allyship about people who make and promote heavy-handed, sorta clumsy art about inclusive spaces, unexamined privilege, and performative allyship rather than confront their own hypocrisies. So there you go. This works more than it doesn't mostly because it's very funny and feels spontaneous even though it's almost absurdly schematic and can't stop bluntly explaining itself.
Lucy (3.5★) · 766 likes
thought i would love this, but it has about 6 different movies crammed into 1 and didn’t do much for me. although, the two main elisabeth moss scenes are absolutely hilarious
Sophy (2★) · 648 likes
Ruben Östlund, you criminally underused Elisabeth Moss, apologize or I will create chaos with you.
2013 · Drama · 2h 22m · Curator 8.9/10 (259.6K ratings) · Where to watch: Max
For viewers drawn to elite cultural spaces, vanity, and existential drift, this offers a more lyrical but similarly observant portrait of social performance.