The Square
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: October 27, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ConsequenceBlake GobleOct 26, 2017
Navigating the nexus of hype, commerce, ego, and bullshit that drives the modern art scene, The Square is almost too perfect in its cunning simplicity. The art world’s always been easy to drag, what with its interiority, weirdos, and frustrating games of pin-the-tail-on-the-thesis. But rarely are these ideas lampooned so beautifully. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 26, 2017
This is a movie with a lot on its mind, from art to altruism to the so-called bystander effect, and it could function as a Rorschach test for its audience, reflecting viewers’ anxieties and insecurities right back at them. It’s also just really, really funny, at least for those who can find humor in humiliation. Read full review
91
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 25, 2017
While The Square is not as slick and streamlined a film as Force Majeure it still hunts for that same meaty psychological game and is never afraid — no matter how close to the bone — to twist that knife. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 25, 2017
An excoriating razor-burn of a movie that deploys drollery like an instrument of torture. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 26, 2017
The Square is too long at 150 minutes and occasionally falls into the sort of preciosity it loves to deride. But the film is full of delicious riffs. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 26, 2017
The Square means to send you out of the theater arguing, and its success on that front should not eclipse its more lasting, unsettling achievement. It affirms that art, this movie very much included, can tell us things about ourselves that we’d prefer not to know. Read full review
90
Village VoiceBilge EbiriOct 23, 2017
Östlund is specific and exacting as a writer and director, and within The Square’s empty spaces, we’re forced to confront our own values, and our own visions of ourselves. Read full review
86
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpNov 7, 2017
The Square’s contrast between categories of morality is peak Östlund. There’s no clearly defined gauge for goodness or badness here, just a palette of gray ethical relativism to offset the film’s superior construction. Read full review
85
UproxxKeith PhippsDec 4, 2017
The humanity behind The Square‘s jabs save it from seeming nihilistic but they also implicate everyone watching. The film seems less nasty for having such a well-developed protagonist, but also that much more squirm-inducing for anyone who recognizes a bit too much of themselves in Christian’s unexamined attitudes. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 12, 2018
Östlund’s film is a sleek rejoinder to Christian’s disastrous PR team, who believe cutting through the noise of modern life requires short, sharp shocks. The Square shows that slow burn, when it’s kindled just right, has a cumulative heat that makes you wilt in your seat. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonMar 19, 2018
Pondering everything from free expression and sexual harassment to bourgeois guilt and migrant rage, this superbly acted saga may not always hit the target. But it unerringly leaves its mark. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa WilkinsonOct 26, 2017
Burying self-referential allusions in the background and merrily poking viewers till they bruise, The Square at times feels more like longform performance art than a narrative film. It’s social satire by way of art-world comedy, and no woke participant is exempt from its barbs. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 25, 2017
What’s perhaps most impressive about Ostlund’s evolving style as a filmmaker and social commentator is his compulsion to enrich every scene he creates with a multitude of tones and nuances across the serio-comic spectrum. He’s like a virtuoso chef driven to try increasingly wild combinations of spices and ingredients; often the result is terrific, once in a while it’s too much. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaMay 25, 2017
Östlund’s eye for the subtleties of human behavior, especially public behavior, never fails. Read full review
80
Screen DailyLee MarshallMay 25, 2017
In all its flawed brilliance, The Square remains an original, visceral, uncomfortable and essential viewing experience. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2017
This movie really brings some gobsmackingly weird and outrageous spectacle, with moments of pure showstopping freakiness. Eventually it loses a bit of focus and misses some narrative targets which have been sacrificed to those admittedly extraordinary set pieces. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiNov 8, 2017
As overindulgent as it is, The Square is a darkly humorous and horrific mirror to our culture. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 20, 2017
The Square is darkly amusing, but it’s also bracingly honest in its absurdity, and that’s what kept me coming back to each one of its wonderfully knotty scenarios even months after seeing it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 9, 2017
If The Square has a point — and it probably has several — it’s that the visceral aspect of life cannot be fully suppressed and shouldn’t be denied. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineTim GriersonMay 25, 2017
Sporting the ambition and sweep of a limited-run TV series, The Square may be overstuffed, but it never stops churning ideas and incidents. Read full review
70
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 26, 2017
The Square lands its bullseyes, over and over, with a faultless precision that grows duller with each strike. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 23, 2017
The best reason to see The Square is the remarkable Terry Notary, last seen in “War for the Planet of the Apes.” Here he plays a performance artist named Oleg, who brings simian havoc, way beyond his brief, to a glamorous event, roaring and thumping among the tuxedos and the gowns. If only he had done the same at Cannes. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 26, 2017
Only half of these setups go anywhere very interesting. The rest just feel like button-pushing stunts that, like so much of the merry-prankster conceptual art Christian champions, zero in on your intellect rather than your gut. Or, better yet, your heart Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 30, 2017
The movie, which features numerous dead-end side-stories and glaring plot holes, is short on narrative and long on allegory. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 3, 2017
The latest from writer/director Ruben Ostlund, who created the masterly and more coherent “Force Majeure,” it plays like a performance art piece that outstays its welcome. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 26, 2017
The Square is ultimately a long version of Christian’s rambling apology, ostentatiously smart, maybe too much so for its own good, but ultimately complacent, craven and clueless. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 25, 2017
Ostlund, at his best, is a heady and enthralling filmmaker, but unfortunately, he has so much on his mind that he is also, at his weakest, a shapeless and didactic one. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 25, 2017
There is much to enjoy here - especially at the beginning - and Östlund's ambition and vision are to be applauded. However, The Square would have been greatly improved had the director taken his scalpel and his demanding critical eye and applied it to the film itself. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnMay 25, 2017
The director excels at generating a nervous energy around his character’s mounting desperation, and the movie’s intermittently engaging for that reason alone. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 3, 2017
The Square turns from a sharp art-world satire into something egregiously bonkers, a collision of blunt comic beats and heavy-handed social commentary that's more messy than profound. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 1, 2017
The Square may be one of the most timely films of this season, but it squanders its own relevancy by shooting fish in the world’s most shallow, painfully obvious barrel. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCarson LundSep 28, 2017
While Ruben Östlund’s mastery of visually amplifying social unease is still very much intact, he’s partially undone here by his own thematic ambition, which, in scene after exquisitely staged scene, threatens to put too fine a point on otherwise thrillingly indeterminate situational comedy. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyOct 27, 2017
This is not a terribly plot-driven movie; indeed, at two hours and twenty minutes it’s rather a ramble. Read full review
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