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Page 6 November 2, 2017 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Entertainment
Film Review Check It Out
Oscar-Worthy The Square Is a Satirical
Look at Affluence Through Modern Art
By H. Nelson Tracey
for www.cinemacy.com
About once a year, if we’re lucky, a movie
comes along that transcends the labels of
comedy, drama and other classified genres. It
will also prove that with top-tier filmmaking,
you can utilize a full emotional range to tell
a story. It is safe to say we have an entry
for this year in Ruben Östlund’s The Square.
A modern art museum in Sweden, vying to
be cutting edge while also needing to sustain
its overhead and encourage people to actually
visit, is getting ready for its newest, boldest
exhibit: The Square. At the helm of the museum
is Christian (Claes Bang) who lives in
a swanky apartment, drives a Tesla and has
no trouble scoring beautiful women. Because
this new exhibit is almost entirely focused
on helping people and trusting strangers,
Christian presents himself with the challenge
of upholding the artistic vision of altruism
throughout the rest of his life.
In reaction to his generally self-serving
behavior, the new exhibit pushes Christian
out of his comfort zone. Yet in every earnest
(or disingenuous) attempt to help other
people--his co-workers, the homeless, family
members--there is a bitter, comical pushback.
The results are absolutely hilarious, perhaps
because of how cringe-worthy and honest the
situations are as people react while trying to
fall into societal norms.
By using the world of modern art and affluence
as its backdrop, The Square allows
for bizarre features to be fair game while also
utilizing cinematic artistry when necessary.
Most importantly, this film is a satire of the
wealthy do-gooders who reek of hypocrisy
without even realizing it. In most American
films when we see characters who are wealthy,
it is typically either glamorized or normalized.
Here, as was true of his last film, Östlund takes
a critical examination of wealth in a way in
which we all can take a lesson.
To English-speaking audiences, a trio of
recognizable faces each play a supporting
role: Elisabeth Moss as a naive reporter,
Dominic West as a self-serving artist and
lastly, Terry Notary--whose name doesn’t
carry star power, but whose resume includes
doing motion capture for the Kong and Planet
of the Apes movies. Here, Notary plays a
controversial performance artist and I’ll only
say his animal motion capture work gets to
play off extraordinarily. The star of the film
remains Claes Bang, whose deadpan delivery
as Christian, no matter what scenario he finds
himself in, is both endlessly relatable and at
times hysterical.
It is not required that you see Östlund’s last
feature, Force Majeure, before you see this
film. However, it does prime you for what to
expect from his particular style. His preceding
film also deals with painfully comedic
scenarios of an affluent family set in a ski
resort. That being said, the ideas and aspirations
that Östlund introduced in Force Majeure are
delivered in greater extremes in The Square.
It’s too early to see what the competition
will be for the Best Foreign Language film
Oscar. History has proven that this specific
category has some of the most misguided of
the already fallible awards, but my reaction
would be that this film is a shoe-in. The
Square represents the first truly amazing
movie of the fall awards season.
The Square is rated R for language, some
strong sexual content, and brief violence. 142
minutes. Now playing at The Landmark and
ArcLight Hollywood. •
Elisabeth Moss and Claes Bang in The Square. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Hazel Gaynor’s The Cottingley Secret
Delves into Fairy and Family Mystiques
Reviewed by Roz Templin, Library
Assistant, El Segundo Public Library
Olivia Kavanaugh inherits an old bookshop
when her beloved grandfather passes away.
She’s in the midst of wedding plans, engaged
to a distant (both physically and emotionally)
businessman. She takes leave of her job
and plans to travel from London to Ireland
to investigate her inheritance and settle her
grandfather’s affairs.
Not only does she fall in love with the old
shop, but Olivia finds there is a cottage to
empty and sell as well as financial woes to
address. Her grandmother is in a nursing home,
suffering from Alzheimer’s, and she doesn’t
know which way to turn.
She finds an old manuscript that describes
the famous Cottingley Fairies--the photographs
taken in the Yorkshire village of Cottingley by
two young girls in the early part of the 20th
Century. People (including Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle) believed they proved that fairies really
existed. “Notes on a Fairytale” is an important
part of Olivia’s story and The Cottingley Secret
reveals some history of her own family that
she didn’t know was missing.
During the months she spends in Ireland,
trying to make a go of the bookshop and ensure
her grandmother’s medical bills are paid, Olivia
must face up to some hard truths and make
difficult decisions. There is a bit of romance
that presents itself unexpectedly, as well as
some unexplained phenomena that occur in
her bookshop’s window display.
Fairytale stories and verse shed some light
on the basic questions of belief. If you can’t
see or touch something, does that mean it
doesn’t exist? During the original Cottingley
fairies incident, the United Kingdom was reeling
from the injuries and loss of life. The First
World War Spiritualism (which included belief
in fairies or “elementals”) was very popular
and gave hope to survivors that they may see
their loved ones again in another realm. Olivia
also experiences quite a few deaths in this
story, and we come to understand her growing
attachment to the fairy manuscript and to
those persons involved in the event. She has
recurring dreams of a little red-headed girl
that get resolved as she nears the end of the
forgotten manuscript.
Author Hazel Gaynor did some extensive
research into the real story of those famous
fairies and she adds some extra information at
the back of the book that’s pretty interesting.
In a section she supplies for further reading,
there are titles she used as well as some that
might add some insight to a curious reader.
The El Segundo Public Library offers interlibrary
loan services for titles that we don’t
own in our library, but that might be found in
another nearby. Please stop in and let us help
you locate that special search item. •
Roz Templin.
City Council from front page
quarterly strategic work plan update to the
Council. The overview highlighted a status
column indicating which items/projects are
already completed or underway (green), set
for implementation in the 2017/18 fiscal year
(yellow), or deferred until a future year or
canceled altogether (red). The current list shows
63 green (70 percent), 23 yellow (25 percent)
and five red (five percent).
Among the key accomplishments pointed out
by Lillio, the Police Department established a
Citizens Training Academy; the Fire Department
updated the frequencies for handheld radios;
Human Resources (HR) kicked off an employee
engagement survey; Public Works and Recreation
and Parks completed installation of new synthetic
turf at the Campus El Segundo Athletic Fields;
the City Manager launched an e-newsletter and
social media outreach campaign; Planning and
Building Safety implemented numerous code
amendments; and Finance began work on a
master user fee schedule.
Additionally, Recreation and Parks extended
summer youth programs, HR addressed personnel
vacancies to fill critical positions; and
Economic Development spearheaded the recent
Champions of Business event. The City Manager
also put forth a residential and business customer
satisfaction survey, with the results coming to
the City Council in December.
Among the notable red items was the TopGolf
project that the City Council voted against
on October 3. Also on the deferred list was a
plan to build the Little League Miracle Field.
That did not make it into the 2017/18 capital
improvement project priority list and will have
to be revisited at a later time.
The most recent report also provided Police
Department performance metrics for the month
of August. Part I crimes (homicide, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, theft/larceny,
vehicle theft, and arson) were down by seven
percent compared to the previous year. Of the
49 total offenses logged, 34 were theft/larceny
(down 11 percent from 2016), with 13 burglaries
(unchanged) and two vehicle thefts (up
five percent). Of 165 Priority 1 calls, average
response time was three minutes and 39 seconds.
During that month, the Area Commander
co-hosted a community meeting on Clutter’s
Park to discuss resident concerns about parking
and transient issues in that area. Police
also hosted the monthly Security Directors’
Breakfast meeting with business leaders, and
staffed a Crime Prevention and Recruiting table
at the City’s Centennial Fair at Chevron Park. •
The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor.
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