Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Square

(Australia, 2008)

Here is an Australian version of the story of catastrophic mistakes and bad choices that can stand comparisons to such films as Blood Simple and A Simple Plan. Not quite as good as that first one, but that was a masterpiece, and this one is just very good. Oddly, it was also made by a team of brothers, the Edgertons, one of whom is an actor and the other seems to have been mostly a stunt man. It’s one of the more assured first features I’ve ever seen, again, reminding me of the Coen Brothers. These things tend to degenerate into bloodbaths at the end, and while there is violence, none of it feels phony or thrown in for its own sake. I’ll look forward to their next effort.