Triangle of Sadness

We watched it just a few days after we learned the death of Charlbi Dean, so I expected an awakward experience, but the film pulled me in from the first minutes. It was much lighter and much more fun than I expected - the title is misleading as "sadness" is absolutely not a topic in the film. However, it deals with quite a lot of topics such as richness, power, capitalism/socialism, and so much more... without preaching or suggesting anything. And it is funny and entertaining from start to finish, sometimes even going into satire. A definitely must watch where you don't feel at all that the runtime is over 2 hours. A very European, very international, very likable movie with stellar performances and a very funny but believably absurd story.

Having adored Ruben's first film and admired his second, I had high hopes for Triangle of Sadness.

Unfortunately, whilst there were some strong moments (mostly in the trailer) and I enjoyed many of the performances, it felt overly long and rather self-satisfied.

Lampooning the lives of the hyper rich, the ugliness, the greed, should come from a place of neutrality and I feel, MUCH more challenging and nuanced than this rather basic farce full of cheap stereotypes.

At no point did I feel that Ruben and the writers felt for a second that they were also part of an elite, as a creation of a privileged bunch of Western European creatives, I'm surprised there's been not much to question this.

Was there any introspection as to the hypocrisy of their position? The cinematic equivalent of a western teenager wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt to their private school.

Not surprisingly the disconnected Cannes audience ate it up. Awarding it, celebrating it and then popping back to their yachts in the harbour to demand cold champagne and hot massages from "the staff".

You have probably never seen a movie like this one. Its craziness is simply undeniable, juggling the grotesque to perfection to paint an unflattering picture of the highest social castes. But while one could be reluctant to see yet another moralizing movie where "the rich are the bad ones and the poor are the good ones", Triangle of Sadness succeeds in going further. Indeed, every protagonist can be made fun of as, through the movie, they all reveal their flaws and their greed.

However, the movie remains first and foremost a clever satire of the highly wealthy. They give ridiculous speeches, make senseless demands and look down on the boat crew. Also, the great acting helps bringing humor in this sometimes blood-curdling picture. Finally, seeing how every character evolves through the various events is really interesting for this purpose.

The message is that money and power pervert you, going with the usual critique of capitalism. While this theme is quite recurrent, the odd way this movie brings it makes it very interesting, shouting out loud what we all already know. 7/10.

First of all, there is no earthly reason this movie needs to be 2 hours and 27 minutes. None. 147 minutes of beating home with sledgehammer efficiency, the prevalence of socio-economic injustice, the perverse obsession with the superficial over the substantial, and gender inequity. The exposing and mocking of which, I am 100% supportive! But the execution is so lazy and repetitive that, even though the core message is admirable, this can hardly be considered enjoyable, much less enlightening.

Now, I love a slow burn. I like long films. And I definitely like films that have something to say. But in all honesty, this film could have been cut by 1/3rd and spared the audience a lot of pain. Every scene is too long, starting from the very first one. There certainly is a message of gender-reversed exploitation to be made, but how long does it really need to take? And the awkwardness of Carl and Yaya's evening is excruciatingly drawn out, exacerbated by the dull and fractional dialogue (though this could be mitigated by the characters being dull and fractional themselves). Even the aftermath of the Captain's Dinner is gratuitously long and boring (I won't even bring in 'disgusting', because that frankly isn't even the issue.) It must be meant for an audience unfamiliar with subtlety in film, but there's no way that target audience has the attention span for such a drawn out film.

Only the 3rd chapter (which deep down somewhere, I knew *had* to be coming, though I'd hoped credits would role at the end of Chapter 2) was even remotely interesting. Two hours of laborious setup to reveal what we already knew in the first place, and had been very obviously foreshadowed from the first moments on the yacht. Take a bit of The Menu and add some Lord of the Flies, but the total is less than the sum of its parts.

The winner of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or prize, Ruben Östlund's Oscar nominated latest slice of melancholy and home truths about the human condition is going to be a divisive exercise for audiences as the Swedish director examines the divide between the haves and the have nots in an epic darkly comedic operation that will likely ensure it's sometime between trips to your local seafood market.

Flirting the line between dramatic beats and Monty Python like physical comedy and outlandish situations, Östlund's Triangle of Sadness is broken up into multiple chapters, with the central figures to the story being Harris Dickinson's down on his luck model Carl and his influencer girlfriend Yaya (played by the late Charlbi Dean who sadly passed away not long after the films release) as the two find themselves aboard a luxury yacht captained by Woody Harrelson's unpredictable literature loving overseer who is going to provide the cruise's guests with numerous unforgettable memories.

In no hurry across its questionably extensive two and half hour runtime, many will not be able to predict where Sadness is going as it slowly and surely wanders along its narrative that around the midway point provides viewers with some of the most unexpected and eye-popping cinematic moments of recent memories as Östlund's razor sharp social commentary takes hold and the journey of Carl, Yaya and the cruise's many guests and staff crash headfirst in an explosive way, leading to various revelations and contemplation's for the films colourful characters.

Headlined well by rising star Dickinson and the taken too soon Dean, who you sense was destined for big things following this effort, Sadness finds some fantastic moments courtesy of Östlund's award worthy screenplay and some fantastic turns from the likes of Dolly De Leon as softly spoken ship handmaid Abigail, Zlatko Buric as Russian millionaire Dimitry (stealing the films best scene courtesy of a P. A system) and the always enjoyable Harrelson, who as per usual makes the most of any screen time he has given as a man who appears to have had enough of playing along with mandatory niceties.

With so much to enjoy and unpack across Sadness's extensive runtime, there is a strong sense that Östlund's feature runs out of steam in the latter stages and while it's best that viewers head into Sadness as blind as possible, once the films last chapter takes hold there are less wins for the narrative as we begin to look forward to a neat wrap up that comes in the form of one of the more abrupt endings of 2022, one that is likely to cause significant debate amongst the film community, much like the film as a whole that some will adore and others loathe.

Final Say -

Providing us with some of the more memorable genuinely hilarious moments of any film from the last 12 months, Triangle of Sadness is a unique feature film from one of the most individual voices in world cinema and while the film does run out of steam in its endgame, Östlund's film is still another fine addition to an increasingly impressive resume of releases.

4 hand grenades out of 5.

Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)