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THUMP THUMP THUMP

Today's film was

The Square (2010)

The thump is my heart some time after the thing was over. A thriller. But a particular kind.

It is one of the few films that there are no heroes. The leads are fuckups from the beginning. The trick here is that the writers/director, let's name them; Director is Nash Edgerton. Written by Joel Edgerton and Matthew Dabner based on an original story by Joel Edgerton. Brothers and a friend. It is edited down so that every scene, I said "every scene" matters. There is no wasted time.

It is weird because we don't want to cheer for these people. On the other hand we somehow hope that they get out of it. Perverse. Clever hooks.

Part of it is also that they stay just ahead of you but not too far. I am trying to figure what has happened and who is coming for who and what the strands are and I grasp it but just enough. On edge. It is like a roller coaster where you think you have gone over the worst of it and then something else happens.

I laugh in this kind of movie to release tension but it is not funny. But it is. I yelled out loud. loud-loud, two or three times. The laugh didn't break the tension enough.

I did not look at my watch except once to figure how they were going to get out of this before the end.

Well, they did what they did and there is closure.

The star is David Roberts who I have seen before. He is everyman. With a twist.

Did I mention that this is an Australian film, subtitles not required here, they play the accent down a degree.

It is also a NYTimes Critic's Choice. Here is what A.O. Scott said:

If you’ve seen “No Country for Old Men” or “A Simple Plan” or any number of other, similar movies, you probably know that nothing good is likely to come from taking somebody else’s bag full of cash. Perhaps Ray and Carla, the adulterous couple at the center of “The Square,” haven’t seen these films, or have drawn the wrong lessons from them. After Carla comes across a satchel full of money that her loutish, vaguely criminal husband has stashed in a crawl space in the laundry room of their house, she and Ray concoct a plan to snatch it and get out of town. What else would they do? And what could possibly go wrong?

I would not mind seeing it again. Even knowing how it turns out. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films