TRIANGLE OF SADNESS |
★★★★★
14 September 2022
A movie review of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS.
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Director: Ruben Östlund (THE SQUARE, FORCE MAJEURE, PLAY).
Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly De Leon, Vicki Berlin, Zlatko Buric, Arvin Kananian, Jean-Christophe Folly, Alicia Eriksson, Sunnyi Melles, Woody Harrelson.
“I’m a sh*t socialist,” The Captain (Woody Harrelson)
The movie to beat for best film of 2022. A scathingly hilarious commentary on the multi-millionaire/billionaire class, among many other observations on race, gender, attractiveness, etc. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is a juicy movie full of zest.
An insolent opening. A reporter interviews male models at an audition for an unnamed brand for an unnamed campaign. It’s a borderline piss-take as it reminds the characters and the movie’s audience of the rare role reversal in the working world: Men earn one-third of their female counterparts, and the that they must navigate being hit on. Then a catwalk show, where a backdrop screen projects unironically, “Everyone’s Equal Now”. Then there is the humiliation of some sitting on the front row being booted off. A person’s place on any given hierarchy is potentially precarious. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS dunks on the modelling world in the first tranche of the film, more than PRÊT-À-PORTER [1994], AUSTIN POWERS [1997], and ZOOLANDER [2001] combined.
Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly De Leon, Vicki Berlin, Zlatko Buric, Arvin Kananian, Jean-Christophe Folly, Alicia Eriksson, Sunnyi Melles, Woody Harrelson.
“I’m a sh*t socialist,” The Captain (Woody Harrelson)
The movie to beat for best film of 2022. A scathingly hilarious commentary on the multi-millionaire/billionaire class, among many other observations on race, gender, attractiveness, etc. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is a juicy movie full of zest.
An insolent opening. A reporter interviews male models at an audition for an unnamed brand for an unnamed campaign. It’s a borderline piss-take as it reminds the characters and the movie’s audience of the rare role reversal in the working world: Men earn one-third of their female counterparts, and the that they must navigate being hit on. Then a catwalk show, where a backdrop screen projects unironically, “Everyone’s Equal Now”. Then there is the humiliation of some sitting on the front row being booted off. A person’s place on any given hierarchy is potentially precarious. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS dunks on the modelling world in the first tranche of the film, more than PRÊT-À-PORTER [1994], AUSTIN POWERS [1997], and ZOOLANDER [2001] combined.
There are three sections to TRIANGLE OF SADNESS. Three theatres where the two main protagonists, a model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are used by the storytellers to shine a light on the world around them for our delectation. The movie could just as equally have been called ‘schadenfreude’. The range of indignities, small and large, heaped on the cast are only just beginning. And skilfully they exponentially get worse. The beauty of the narrative is that we are constantly guessing where we are heading (and if there is any story destination at all). I had a premonition about the climactic rug-pull, and the reveal was all the tastier for it.
The second part is Yaya and Carl on a $250 million yacht. Director Ruben Östlund’s subjects are getting richer: PLAY [2004] -> FORCE MAJEURE [2011] -> THE SQUARE [2017]. (Where does he go from here?) He is a perspicacious filmmaker. I can see why there are such big gaps between his films, they appear sculpted and perfected. The result, whether improvised or with a screenplay mapped out in advance, feels meticulous. I guess that’s how artists get legend status by their work seeming to be intentional rather than accidental.
Aboard the yacht is an intoxicating and excruciating takedown of the non-self-aware uber-wealthy. Are they wilfully oblivious and clueless? Lacerating social commentary benefits from being funny and/or exhilarating (see one of cinema’s recent pinnacles, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU [2018], and television show THE WHITE LOTUS [2021]). As Mary Poppins sang, “A spoonful of medicine helps the medicine go down”. These stories of course don’t need to be so engaging; but surely the more they are, the wider the audience they will reach? (Especially if the commentary is surreptitious.) Wait till you get to the Captain’s dinner. I was almost embarrassed at how much I laughed. Then wait till you get to the comeuppance of… you’ll see.