Directed by Ruben Östlund
UK & Sweden, 2022
Eat the rich? Well, that doesn’t quite happen in this scabrous comedy by Ruben Östlund, although with this filmmaker at the helm we can never be sure where the story is heading. Yes, we are back with the director of Force Majeure, the film ReidsonFilm described as ‘a highly polished glacial comedy of manners’. Triangle of Sadness is certainly a highly polished production: Östlund and his cinematographer, Fredrik Wenzel, know where to place a camera and the film is drenched in vibrant colour, but glacial? Certainly not, and no sign of manners either. It did however, win him his second Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Triangle of Sadness is actually a triptych, three films in one, which explains the 147-minute running time: pretty long for a satirical comedy. The first chapter, titled ‘Carl and Yaya’ introduces us to two fashion models in a relationship. Östlund clearly enjoys himself poking fun at the superficial fatuousness of the fashion industry. Carl opens the film at a casting call, where the chiselled male models are told to smile for the ‘cheap’ brands like H&M, but grimace for Balenciaga. Carl and his coterie eagerly oblige, before one of the casting agents points out his ‘triangle of sadness’, that area between his eyebrows and the bridge of his nose that is starting to wrinkle. Perhaps Botox would help?
As if Carl doesn’t have enough insecurity we next join him at dinner with Yaya, an awkward dinner in a swanky restaurant that ends with a spat about who should pay. Is the dispute really about Carl’s progressive sensibilities regarding gender dynamics, or is he simply just envious of Yaya’s higher status and income?
Carl: But don’t you understand? …I mean we should treat each other as equals, not just fall into the trap of stereotypical gender-based roles, like most couples seem to do.
As well as being a model Yaya is an influencer who Instagrams herself constantly with food she wouldn’t dream of actually eating. And this takes us to the second chapter: The Yacht. The influencer’s influence has bagged the pair a cruise on an exclusive super-yacht and here Östlund lets fly with the satire. The Insta-couple are rubbing shoulders with a rather vulgar Russian oligarch (Zlatko Buric), joined onboard by both his wife and his girlfriend. Demanding enough to have tubs of Nutella delivered to the ship by helicopter… his trade? Presciently, waste management.
They also meet a gentle middle-class couple from England who turn out to be arms dealers. Their names? Winston and Clementine…get it? Yes, there is little subtlety here. Think of Airplane! transposed to a ship. Woody Harrelson appears, and has a blast in a cameo as the drunken ship’s captain who happens to be a Marxist. The cast of caricatures join him for a dinner of caviar, squid, and oysters, all washed down with plenty of champagne – the captain sensibly has cheeseburger and chips – and any satire is washed away by a tidal wave of toilet humour. The turbulent ocean combines with greed and sea-sickness to give us the film’s climax: a 15-minute carnival of mass vomiting and diarrhoea…
The women slide up and down the toilet floor in vomit while the captain talks about them bathing in riches on the intercom - T
As a film, Triangle of Sadness is really a series of set pieces and in a rather clunky storyline, involving a pirate attack, there is an abrupt transition to the final chapter: The Island. Following the preceding farcical scenes, Östlund dials things down with Carl, Yaya, and the surviving guests and crew all cast adrift on a desert island. The child-like dependencies of the uber-rich are exposed when the hierarchies are reversed, as Abigail, an erstwhile toilet cleaner from the yacht, demonstrates her survival skills and becomes the new ‘captain’. Only one of ReidsonFilm was old enough to recall that we have been here before with the Admirable Crichton, a 1950s comedy about a butler (Kenneth Moore) who takes charge after a shipwreck.
So, hardly original but Östlund is by now an expert at piling humiliation upon his parade of grotesques. To be honest, having a laugh at the rich here really is like shooting a fish in the barrel, but what makes Triangle of Sadness so entertaining is the way that the cast don’t hold anything back. Sunnyi Melles, as the wife of the oligarch, has the best (or worst) of it as we watch her fall off the toilet bowl and glide around the bathroom floor covered with a cocktail of seawater and shit. Harris Dickinson, as Carl, is impressive as the mannequin whose earlier pleas for sex equality have been forgotten by the third act when he becomes Abigail’s kept man, swapping sexual favours for the choicest pretzel sticks. Charlbi Dean (who tragically died shortly after the film’s release) keeps him good company as Yaya the hot-girl influencer. But it’s Dolly De Leon, as Abigail the Filipino toilet cleaner-cum-captain who steals the show in the final act. While sitting alone in a lifeboat, we watch as she contemplates her situation and strategy before upending the power dynamics on the island. Indeed, we will find that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The absurdist humour, quirky characters, and rollercoaster plot made it accessible while still engaging with interesting ideas; wide shots and a sharp focus on the emotional tone of a scene, with every character having a defined role within the beat, reminds me somewhat of Kurosawa - N
So, is Triangle of Sadness a biting social commentary, or just a raucous entertainment? There was a mixed reaction from ReidsonFilm. Following the acclaim granted to Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite we have been treated to a succession of film and television shows lampooning the 1%: Succession, White Lotus, and that risible film Saltburn. And it’s a seam that Ruben Östlund seems happy to continue mining. Well, if he’s looking for a setting for his next picture, could I suggest the Cannes Film Festival?
Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life: Triangle of Sadness used the yacht, Christina O, which was originally the property of the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. He had the boat’s bar stools upholstered in whale foreskin.
Reids’ Results (out of 100)
C - 74
T - 81
N - 77
S - 69
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Coming next… The Creator(2023)
I have to confess to not always reading every Reids on Film review. They are a prolific bunch! I like this director but this was my least favourite of the 3 films I have seen. Enjoyable and Woody Harrelson is standout but too long and the bloated rich a soft target to harpoon. I much preferred his ridicule of the Art World.
Ultimate Cannes “emperor has no clothes” film — wildly overrated. Condescending, mean, self-congratulatory, poorly shot, boring, repulsive 3 year old level potty humor and trite. Best seen as a satire of the self-hating yet egotistical film community.