The Square, a gritty and masterful neo-noir flick, announces two powerful voices to the film world. Hailing from Australia, director Nash Edgerton and his brother, screenwriter Joel Edgerton, are drawing comparisons to the Coens, and rightly so.
Their film follows Ray (David Roberts) and Carla (Claire van der Boom), an adulterous couple looking to leave their spouses. When Carla finds a bag full of money in her home — her husband is a local thug and drug dealer — she and Ray decide to steal it and run off together. To cover up the theft, they hire an arsonist to burn down the house, and, needless to say, things just go downhill from there.
For his first feature, Edgerton demonstrates a remarkable confidence behind the camera. Carefully constructed Steadicam shots create an atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread that doesn’t let up. Despite the warm, sunny weather, the Australia depicted here doesn’t look anything like its postcards. The characters inhabit a violent, working-class town that only offers unglamorous construction and auto-repair jobs. One way or another, everyone gets their hands dirty.
As demonstrated in his short film “Spider” that precedes The Square, Edgerton is attracted to bad decisions and their grisly consequences. The film’s intricate narrative places Ray and Carla deeper and deeper over their heads, and the steady increase in body count is both depressing and darkly humorous. While the characters, especially Carla, are not as fleshed out and nuanced as they could be, their foolish choices make them both sympathetic, revolting and interesting to watch. The Square is ultimately not a film of good guys and bad guys, but of people caught in a series of events that plays out like a nuclear chain reaction.
Directed by: Nash Edgerton Starring: David Roberts, Claire van der Boom Rated R, 105 min.
