Triangle Of Sadness - Movie Review

Critics Score - 9 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

Most average moviegoers aren’t familiar with the name Ruben Östlund. He’s a writer and director from Sweden that’s made a few foreign films because technically they’re produced and filmed in Europe, even though his latest film, Triangle Of Sadness, is almost completely in spoken English. This film premiered earlier this year at Cannes, one of the more prestigious film festivals from France that took place in May, where Ruben took home the top prize, the Palme d’Or. With just that pedigree, Triangle Of Sadness has been on many film pundit’s radars for quite some time, but now it’s finally been released here in the U.S. It’s currently able to be seen in theatres, which is the best place to watch it, in a movie theatre with a group of friends. I won’t get deep into the plot, but the film is about a group of extremely wealthy individuals who go on a pleasure cruise aboard a luxury yacht when things start to go awry. This film offers scathing critiques of high society, the fashion industry, the ultra wealthy and influencers, amongst others. There have been some genuinely hilarious films from 2022 that I loved including Thor Love And Thunder and White Noise, but this is easily the funniest damn movie of the year. While this film does begin to wear out it’s welcome with a (gasp) almost two and a half hour runtime, the second act absolutely slays, it may very well be the best second act of any film of 2022. Movie lovers of all shapes and sizes will find themselves rolling on the floor with this Triangle but the tears shed aren’t likely to be Of Sadness.

SYNOPSIS - This fiasco of a film begins in a room full of shirtless male models, getting ready to interview for a unknown modeling job. These models are being interviewed by a long, blonde haired man dressed completely in black and holding a tiny mic. I got some serious Zoolander vibes as he asks a long haired lad who looked like he could have some Native American ancestry what the most important part of being a model is, he responds “looking good”. The interviewer then has them humorously switch between a smiling modeling face for a “cheap” H&M campaign and a somber condescending face for a Balenciaga ad. Let the mocking commence. We then watch as a panel of industry reps begin to have the shirtless squadron of young men enter one at a time for the interviews, one of them, Carl (Harris Dickinson), they have walk the floor a few times. One of the panel members refers to his “triangle of sadness”, the area above the nose and between the eyebrows, and how that area needs to convey a specific message to their target audience.

As we continue into the first act, we meet Carl and his girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean) as they’re having dinner in a high end restaurant, where she’s content to spend most of her time looking at herself in a mirror. As the waiter drops the check off on the table, she continues monitoring her reflection, much to the chagrin of Carl. A slightly humorous discussion of who’s picking up the check then ensues and it goes on for way longer than it needs to, but then you can say the same for the film in general. As the movie moves into the second act, we watch a helicopter flying in the open ocean, they hover a moment before dropping a hard, yellow, plastic case into the water. After being retrieved by a small boat, it returns to the yacht where the second act takes place, it’s secret contents being delivered to the kitchen where it’s opened and they produce some containers of Nutella. On board the boat we’re introduced to a slew of new characters including an eccentric, fertilizer selling Russian Dimitry (Zlatko Buric), a caviar loving wealthy heiress Vera (Sunnyi Melles) and a drinking game playing Captain (Woody Harrelson). Triangle Of Sadness works it way through some of the most ridiculous shenanigans imaginable before finally returning to dry land and turning everything on it’s head once again.

The screenplay from Östlund is excellent as well as his direction, he’s able to extract humor from some of the situations he creates with the hand of a comedic genius. The one issue you could point out is the editing, which finally results in an overall runtime that is pretty bloated, some sequences drag and wear out their welcome, the first act especially being far more involved in setting up the Carl and Yaya characters than necessary. It’s probable that he simply wanted to indulge in these funny scenarios and his amusing dialogue for too long and the film suffers ever so slightly for it. But the film delivers when it needs to, the wild ride and hilarious adventure he takes us on leaves us, maybe not asking for more, but perfectly content with the final product. The film is quite cinematic as well, the luxurious rooms and dining area being bright, airy and aesthetically pleasing before the waves roll in that send the wine bottles rolling and mermaid tables sliding. While Triangle Of Sadness might not be perfect, it’s a twisting tale of dark comedy that absolutely roasts some aspects of life enjoyed by members of high society and is a pure delight and entertaining as hell.

SUMMARY - Ruben Östlund hits this one out of the park with his sharp humor sensibilities and cutting satire. Don’t be a square and go check out this Triangle Of Sadness, it’s not only a blast with a group, but it’s one of the best movies of the year. Oh, and bring your Emesis bag.