Peter Wood Reviews "The Square"

National Association of Scholars

NAS President Peter Wood reviews Ruben Östlund's new movie The Square, which satirizes modern art and other aspects of modern Swedish society. He writes at First Things:

The Square, in other words, is thoroughly “cutting-edge.” It invokes moral imperatives and stakes intellectual claims, and dissolves them both in postmodern irony. Christian is not a bad man, in the sense that he upholds the pieties of the age. But he is all surface and entirely ineffectual in a crisis. When push comes to shove, he shoves—a little boy down a flight of stairs. But he feels bad about it afterwards, and sends the boy a video message in which he blames “society” for his bad behavior.

You can read the entire review at First Things.

Image Credit: Cliff.

  • Share

Most Commented

May 7, 2024

1.

Creating Students, Not Activists

The mobs desecrating the American flag, smashing windows, chanting genocidal slogans—this always was the end game of the advocates of the right to protest, action civics, student activ......

March 9, 2024

2.

A Portrait of Claireve Grandjouan

Claireve Grandjouan, when I knew her, was Head of the Classics Department at Hunter College, and that year gave a three-hour Friday evening class in Egyptian archaeology....

April 20, 2024

3.

The Academic's Roadmap

By all means, pursue your noble dream of improving the condition of humanity through your research and teaching. Could I do it all again, I would, but I would do things very differently....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

September 21, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Does YHWH Elohim Mean?

A reader asks, "If Elohim refers to multiple 'gods,' then Yhwh Elohim really means Lord of Gods...the one of many, right?" A Hebrew expert answers....