poe426 I tend to have a problem with films that, in lieu of a third act, opt for a shootout to resolve things. That's exactly what happens in THE SQUARE. The film overall is very well made, with some solid performances (I was especially fond of Claire van der Boom, although I must confess that that probably has more to do with the fact that she's really, really easy on the eyes), but the aforementioned "resolution" leaves a bad aftertaste. And whatever happened to Yale's wife? She's quite literally a background fixture who simply fades away at some point, never to be seen or heard from again. One would think that THAT would've been an integral part of the big picture. (WHY did Yale have an affair? Was his wife a shrew? Did she make him feel like a necrophiliac?) There are just too many unanswered questions that linger in the air once this one's done.

antoniotierno Movie goers have a sort of fascination with watching less-than-smart people do really stupid thing, exactly what drives film noir and many of the best crime dramas. "The Square," from Australia, certainly fits that reasoning. We watch the bottom drop out of the lives of many different characters destroying each other and themselves, with things going wrong for everyone. Edgerton is brilliantly merciless in moving the story forward, as along the way, we'll encounter blackmail, murder (unintentional and otherwise) and more, some of it brutal, some of it weird. Roberts makes for a most worried-looking protagonist, seemingly wearing each new disaster with a deeper furrow in his brow. Van der Boom is effective at never letting us really know what she's thinking, while Hayes is nicely creepy as the no-good Smithy.

LeonLouisRicci If you like them Gritty and devoid of Fluff and a sneering sensibility, this one from Down Under is a definitive Neo-Noir worth watching. It is a no Frills Film that takes its darkly drenched sensibility from some well known Auteurs like the Coens and Literary Icons like Caine and Chandler. Not Bad Role Models. The appeal here is a World spiraling out of control. A World set in motion by those most directly affected by its New Orbit. What can go wrong will go wrong would be something for those aspiring to get away and get away with it, both the Crime and the Money.The Anti-Heros are setting Themselves up for a whole lot of hurt and it brings down just about Everyone in Their path. There is an attraction here that is presented as very unattractive. Nothing is Pretty. The People, the Places, or the Ending that is a relief, although not a pleasant one, to finally find out how it all, and who all will be around to tell the Tale. This is a humorless Homage to the Genre. Even a couple of Canines who find a mutual Attraction find out that it is a Cold Cruel World, especially if you stray outside your Little, Safe, Square.

johnnyboyz If you find yourself more gripped by The Square than you first thought you might be, then that is because it gets the crucial things right before it unleashes its spectacular tale of nihilist causality designed to amuse; entertain and gut-wrench in equal measure. The Square isn't an original film. Its central idea is along the lines of blackmail; doubles crosses and people in extra martial affairs trying to do one over the feminine participant's partner. However, it remembers to make us care about those involved to make it engaging; remembers to have us give a damn about what might happen to the folk it spends a good deal of time setting up before these various parties and people vie with one another over a large amount of money. The premise is, of course, enough to illicit groans from some people – every genre film ever made has the ability to do such a thing, but Nash Edgerton's film does what's crucial and nails that opening chapter in regards to its character relation dynamics for us to tune in and come to enjoy it to the degree we're supposed to. In spite of this potential to be unoriginal, I'll be damned if the day comes along whereby I don't enjoy a well-made thriller about a bag of cash and some people with the potential to be quite rotten scurrying around trying to end up with it. Veterans of another Australian relationships drama entitled "Lantana" will spy the inflection during The Square's opening sequence, a track down from a busy highway across a bridge constructed over a large river moves to encompass the unpleasant noises insects and bugs in the undergrowth produce before we focus on a truck housing two people making love. That idea of unpleasant things out of sight is here again – once more, not an original feat but one which infers a certain sense of this being an illegal rendez-vous out of the film's inferring they're 'hiding' from the mainstream flow. Completing the additional foul swoop, and alluding to a darker tone of comedy often dropped in amidst the grizzly-ness of what's beneath inner-suburban Australia, Edgerton will place two yapping mutts in a neighbouring vehicle at this small rest stop mirthfully reminding us that these two people are, indeed, 'dogging'.The two are Ray (Roberts) and Carla (van der Boom), Ray a man with a wife and Carla a woman with a husband. Ray works on a construction site charged with building a motel, the sort of location you might expect Ray and Carla to be sneaking off to in order to perpetuate their illicit romance. In spite of everything, Ray strikes us as a nice guy; someone who, we sense, deserves more in life than what he's got when we watch him verbally struck down at work by a foreman's retort to a pretty decent idea Ray has on the job at hand. Alas, he cannot seem to get a break in this regard. Set in a small Australian town divided by a river, each of their spouses are unaware of a romance which escalates into the penchant for theft and elope when, in true 50's Hollywood noir fashion, a large quantity of money comes Carla's way and Ray is swayed into going with a plan of hers. Before you roll your eyes enough to do yourself some serious damage, hear that he does and that we don't mind that he does because Edgerton grinds some serious drama out of a familiar idea featuring people we enjoy following. We wonder just how it is Carla picks her men; her incumbent partner is certainly a lot rougher than Ray and we're amused at how Carla's man's bulldog-inflected pet dog clashes with that of Ray's poodle. Much more affecting is how we observe Ray dine in front of a television with his wife, anonymously and blandly in what is a state of matrimony that's seen better days. It is Carla's husband Greg (Hayes) who obtains the cash in the first place, further still provoking Carla to get Ray to help take it from him before anyone can spot anything. The charm is in the film's resisting to go for a straight up good guys and villains-type scenario, with Greg as the bad guy and the central two as the lovers looking to go on the run. We don't brush these characters off as archetypes; indeed, we sense these people are human and might exist; we sense that if Carla was to ever go for an older man, she'd chose Ray's tall, wiry and softly spoken character. Additionally, we don't necessarily dislike Greg. If none of the above still doesn't convince you, take an amusing scene in a kitchen during a BBQ someone is hosting: Ray treads towards the fridge for a beer – "Don't you DARE pull out a can of Fosters" we scream at ourselves as the thing jolts open. The hand goes in, it comes back out again and that unmistakable blue inflection that makes up a can of Foster's is nowhere to be seen…. We sigh in relief and ease our way back into the scene again before the film proper – How nice to watch a thematic or an arc that's somewhat familiar where the people depicted within are a little more than just clichés.