Capsule Review: The Square

The Square
Dir. Nash Edgerton
Year: 2008
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 107mins

Nash Edgerton's upgrade from short film director to feature film director is a familiar course for Australian filmmakers. From Jane Campion to Matthew Saville there is an impressive roster of names - and there are more making the jump this year - and The Square is an incredibly impressive feature debut for Edgerton.

The Square is a thriller written by Joel Edgerton (Nash's famous actor brother who co-stars as a paid arsonist) and Matthew Dabner that takes that good ol' fashioned Aussie film staple - depressed man (David Roberts) having an affair with a younger woman (Claire van der Boom) - and injects it with tension and heart-racing twists and turns. Filled with secrets, double crosses, car chases, mysteries, frights and a fair share of dead bodies, The Square is the sort of film our industry should be making more of. Of course, the movie flopped upon release - all sorts of reasons for that that we won't go into yet again - which is such a shame because it really is a corker of a film. As the press quotes may say, "you'll be the on the edge of your seat." B+