Triangle of Sadness

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".

Writer-Director Ruben Ostlund fancies himself as a filmmaker specializing in social satires. As the title hints at, his heavy-handed TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is broken up into three chapters. What connects the three are a fashion modeling pair, Carl (Harris Dickson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean; in her final role).

The conceited couple end up on a luxury cruise ship which includes a contingent of Russian oligarchs. It's captained by an erratic commander in Woody Harrelson, leaving much of the crew discipline up to Paula (Vicki Berlin). As in FORCE MAJEURE and THE SQUARE, Ostlund is fond of having a big set piece at the center: the avalanche in FORCE, the ape man at the fundraiser in SQUARE. In TRIANGLE OF SADNESS it's a Captain's Dinner set during a storm. Anybody who's seen Marco Ferrari's LA GRAND BOUFFE or Monty Python's MEANING OF LIFE will be prepared for the aftermath of the combo of fine dining and sea-sickness that follows. And, then things get even worse for Carl, Yaya and the rest of the guests and crew.

Ostlund has never been a subtle filmmaker, but, even by his standards, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS hits its targets too directly and on point from the very start with an over-extended prologue showing how superficial the fashion world is - stop the presses! Ostlund is too talented for the movie to be totally bereft of humor, but, he beats his targets over the head so firmly that whatever insights or laughs get drowned out in the process.

The final act, the aftermath of the cruise ship's calamities, has a certain effectiveness even if it's too drawn out. Dolly De Leon as Abigail, a cleaning woman, comes to the fore in this section and gives the movie a genuine spark or two. The rest of the cast do what they can with the the script (Ostland's first primarily in the English language - maybe the nuances got lost in the translation). Zlatko Buric is particularly effective as a boorish Russian passenger. Production-wise, TRIANGLE is well made with good use of the locations, including the main setting on the Cristina O yacht; But in the end, it's the failure of Ostlund to have anything to say -- let alone with wit and wisdom - that sinks this production.

This is something else and then some!

I accidentally stumbled into this movie and I can tell you that his story fascinated me from the very start! Without anything in particular dramatic happening at all, a FASCINATING tension / intrigue was slowly building up inside this story. THAT's the trademark of a brilliant writer and director!

This is definitely a director's gem!

This director manages to evoke feelings, evoke thoughts, with mere images and without any logical explanation. It is such a joy to watch this mindbending story unfold!

The photography needs special mentioning, because it was like a fly on the wall. Subtle, but suggestive. Mysterious and mesmirizing. I was drawn in like rarely happens. I was mesmirized!

However great the buildup in eery tension was during the first part of this movie, the final segment of this story was a bit of a let down, because the eery tension was gone. Still fascinating to watch the final unfold and there will surely be a LOT of moral analysis WHAT this picture is all about. But in the end this is what I simply would like to call BRILLIANT CINEMA.

BRAVO!

Thank you for reading my 1800th review on Imdb!

This is why I used to go to theaters - to watch thought provoking entertaining movies. While there may be little to no blood - this movie is brutal. No stone is left unturned as you move through society's expectations of class, money and sexual politics. This is not light breezy fun and is sure to turn your stomach just watching it at times. This is a return to an original script not based on some comic book or sequel of some long drawn out franchise. I mean you could watch another DC/Marvel movie but is there a point to that anymore? This is in my humble opinion the best movie of 2022 (so far).

At its top layer, "Triangle of sadness" is a skillfully harsh comedy/parody, proudly absurd with a good dose of "cringe" in each of its 3 parts. Yes, it's funny and yes it's rude and over the top, but how else could it be since it tries to point a finger at our contemporary society?

If you follow the path that Östlund opens up for you, you might notice that beneath the strangely entertaining package the director tires to bring to light weakness found in aparent strength and not only this, but he also implies that no matter how much you try to "strip" people of their social shell, deep inside they can never really change.

Absolutely recommended and definitely worth the Palme d'Or it got this year!