Australian Noir Hit ‘The Square’ is Riveting Directorial Debut

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HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.0/5.0
Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – A spectacular alternative to the glut of blockbusters about to dominate the marketplace, Nash Edgerton’s “The Square” heralds the arrival of a major new talent on the international movie scene. A riveting tale of a small group of people doing very bad (and pretty dumb) things, “The Square” works from beginning to end and stands as one of the best feature debuts of the year to date.

Edgerton is hardly new to the world of filmmaking, having worked on the stunts for dozens of major Hollywood films, appeared as an actor in several of them, and worked as a short feature director. Working from a story idea and a script co-written by his brother Joel, Edgerton has synthesized his years of moviemaking experience into a piece of work that has drawn notable comparisons to the first film of another pair of brothers: Joel & Ethan Coen’s “Blood Simple”. “The Square” may not be quite as perfectly wound as that modern masterpiece of its genre but it’s easy to see why the connection has been made by critics. If this is as important a debut as the one that gave the Coens to the world only time will tell.

StarRead Brian Tallerico’s full review of “The Square” in our reviews section.

“The Square” was a hit in its native Australia when it was released almost two years ago. With this release and next week’s long-delayed release of the great Korean film “The Good The Bad The Weird,” one is reminded how unusually long it takes even the best international films to get to the United States. Whatever took so long, it was worth the wait.

As with any noir, “The Square” features relatively average people torn apart by greed and desire. As in most thrillers, protagonists leading sinful lives rarely come out smelling like roses. So, when the film opens with “hero” Raymond Yale (David Roberts) having extramarital sex in a parked car and then, moments later, accepting a kickback for a construction job he’s managing, it’s pretty transparent that poor Ray is about to have a number of very bad days.

StarContinuing reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “The Square” review.

‘The Square’ stars David Roberts, Claire van der Boom, Joel Edgerton, and Anthony Hayes. It was written by Joel Edgerton and Matthew Dabner and directed by Nash Edgerton. It is now playing in some markets, opened in Chicago on April 30th, 2010, and will continue to expand around the country. It is rated R.

The Square
The Square
Photo credit: Apparition

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