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

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

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?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....