Play

At first, it seemed like auteur director Ruben Östlund was an accomplished, innovative, and talented filmmaker. He continues to push the boundaries with his works, finding new ways to portray complex social issues.

While this initial assessment is still true (for the most part), after viewing his five most recent feature films and two short films as of 2024, we can officially add him to the group of directors loosely defined as: Having immense talent and innovative ideas that manage to shine through every so often, but more often than not are unfortunately hindered by their pretentious attempts to make social commentary; they claim to be making socially significant films portraying serious real life issues including cultural acclimation, disability, discrimination, mental health stigmatization, politics, psychology, racism, religion, socioeconomic strata, sociology, and other such existential and philosophical themes. However, they ultimately end up not depicting exploitation as much as they themselves exploit their audiences, psychologically taunting us by drawing out plots and scenes unnecessarily and utilizing shock value tactics. Another well known director in this group is the Danish director Lars Von Trier.