Triangle of Sadness (2022)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Tagline: Welcome aboard.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Director: Ruben Östlund

Cast: Charlbi Dean, Harris Dickinson, Woody Harrelson, Zlatko Burić, Henrik Dorsin, Iris Berben, Sunnyi Melles, Dolly de Leon, Vicki Berlin, Oliver Ford Davies, Jean-Christophe Folly, Amanda Walker, Hanna Oldenburg, Malte Gårdinger, Linda Anborg, Carolina Gynning, Arvin Kananian, Camilla Läckberg, Beata Borelius, Shaniaz Hama Ali, Ralph Schicha, Timoleon Gketsos, Chris Westerstrom, Alicia Eriksson, Mira Uszkureit, Thobias Thorwid, Amanda Schulman, Alex Schulman, Jiannis Moustos, Stefan Gödicke, Nana Manu, Mia Benson, Elisabeth Falk

Release: 2022-09-23

Runtime: 149

Plot: Models Carl and Yaya are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues' gallery of super-rich passengers. At first, all appears Instagrammable, but the cruise ends catastrophically and the group find themselves marooned on a desert island.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Should be twisted and funny which is a combination I enjoy.

 

[JoeStemme]

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.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm thinking that people that saw Glass Onion and The Menu should complete their "rich asshole" 2022 trilogy with this picture. I mean, why not?

 

[Josh Dial]

I watched this last night. It's one of the last Oscar-nominated movies I have to watch before the ceremony.

I thought it was a solid movie, but not one of my "tops" of the year. The performances were all great--in particular Charlbi Dean who sadly died of sepsis last year at the young age of 32. She brought a nice energy to her role. Harris Dickinson played the brooding model asshole well.

Speaking of assholes, like Reggie writes above, this movie is definitely part of the unofficial "eat the rich" trilogy along with The Menu and Glass Onion. I think Triangle of Sadness is the weakest of the three (The Menu is the strongest, and one of my favourites of the year).

Triangle of Sadness wears its themes on its sleeve, and is completely unsubtle with its commentary on class and gender. Its unsubtle nature reminded me "Don't Look Up", even if the themes were different. The first act's comments on gender (mostly) and class (a bit less) are a bit unfocused, though I think that might have been the point, since the dialogue is being delivered by "the youth" of the film.

The second act is the strongest, hilarious, bordering on absurd at times, and completely scathing with its observations about the rich.

The third act inverts the class and gender dynamics. It's interesting for a time, but overstays its welcome. Clocking in at just over 2.5 hours I thought the movie as a whole was slightly too long. The third act is the bulk of the movie and also the act that could have benefited from a bit of trimming.

But I did like the movie, and I'll buy it on physical media and watch it again. However, I think it plays best when grouped with The Menu and Glass Onion.

7.5/10

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I felt it was a pretty decent film. Really enjoyed it, though a bit aghast over the use of feces as a comic tool, if that was what the point of it was.

Also sad that Dean passed away after the film was completed.

 

[Hanson]

The first act of Triangle was belabored and boring. I fell asleep at one point and had to go back to find my place and then fell asleep again. So I called it a day and restarted when I felt a little more energized.

After fighting through the first act again, the second act really picked up, acquiring a multitude of interesting characters that made it much more entertaining than the vapid model pair from act one. And then they started dinner...

The dinner scene is my favorite scene of the year -- every uncomfortable element ramping up higher and higher and getting funnier and funnier. I was just in awe of the way the scene built and built, until it was a symphony of... well, spoilers.

Harrelson and the Russian oligarch were incredible together. The third act was excellent as well, it's a shame Dolly DeLeon was overlooked for the Oscars.

My second favorite film of the year.

 

[billO']

I'm very interested in seeing this film, but of course it never played in my medium-sized podunk town. Have to wait another month for the disc release.

 

[JoeStemme]

I'm very interested in seeing this film, but of course it never played in my medium-sized podunk town. Have to wait another month for the disc release.

It's available to rent for $6.

But, you can wait - it isn't very good. https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/triangle-of-sadness-2022.377168/post-5172543

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I think I saw that it was available as a streaming rental for $3.99.

 

[billO']

It's available to rent for $6.

But, you can wait - it isn't very good. https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/triangle-of-sadness-2022.377168/post-5172543

I'm sorry to sound elitist but I don't do streaming, and am waiting for the Criterion edition to be released in April.

If I know there's a release coming with special features, I'll wait for that.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Speaking of assholes, like Reggie writes above, this movie is definitely part of the unofficial "eat the rich" trilogy along with The Menu and Glass Onion. I think Triangle of Sadness is the weakest of the three (The Menu is the strongest, and one of my favourites of the year).

I think The Menu is the most fun and probably best paced of the three. I think Triangle is a better film than Glass Onion, which was fun and pretty but to me, not a very good film. The thing about Triangle is that there are no likable or even really relatable characters in it. My favorite part of the film is the captain and the crazy Russian getting drunk and going back and forth about communism and capitalism. The picture begins slow with the section about the two young models, and once it gets to the final section on the island, well, it is funny but I did not think as amusing as Woody and the Russian going back and forth.

Also, I would say that Triangle comes with a warning, in that if you suffer from sea sickness or do not have a strong stomach, the vomit fest that makes up a chunk of the picture will be tough to watch. My wife could not make it through this section of the film.

I would rate them The Menu, Triangle, and Glass Onion at the bottom. All worth seeing, all entertaining in different ways. The Menu was the most on point though, I'd say.

 

[Walter Kittel]

I caught Triangle of Sadness this weekend and while I enjoyed it, I did feel that the absurd nature of the film was a bit too heavy handed for my taste at times. I feel like these types of films abandon reality in service to their commentaries on society and that a more subtle approach would be just as effective and more credible.

Watching the sea sickness and very unsettling dinner party and aftermath, I couldn't help but be reminded of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and the Mr. Creosote segment and its take on gluttony. With the Python's approach, reality is abandoned so the satire can be as pointed as the filmmakers want without hurting the realism of the film.

I did enjoy most of the performances. It is a shame that Charbli Dean passed at such a young age with so much of her life and career still in front of her.

The ambiguous ending of the film recalls other works such as Inception. I chose to believe the positive, optimistic eventuality but certainly think that the darker path is just as likely.

I would rank the films (in overall enjoyment) in the same order as Reggie, (The Menu, Triangle, and Glass Onion).

- Walter.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

All three have an island setting. All three show the rich as stupid and useless as human beings. All three also show the rich and their hangers on as pretty much horrid people with an intense sense of entitlement and privilege.

In all three films, the rich morons mostly get what is coming to them. In one of the films the tables turn and when they do, the less privileged person demonstrates their sense of entitlement.

I think in Glass Onion, the characters are made much more likable/goofy for the most part so as not to turn off the audience. In Triangle, the characters are much more openly lousy people and the edges are not softened. In The Menu, we are given two sets of characters to observe, the staff and the diners and one character that is our eyes on the situation. This is a more traditional set-up for a picture and sort of mid film we get that in Glass Onion as well. In Triangle there is no attempt to give the audience a proxy that we see things through. We are just fly on the wall watching these people and forced to judge them ourselves.

 

[JoeStemme]

Watching the sea sickness and very unsettling dinner party and aftermath, I couldn't help but be reminded of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and the Mr. Creosote segment and its take on gluttony. With the Python's approach, reality is abandoned so the satire can be as pointed as the filmmakers want without hurting the realism of the film.

Mentioned that in my piece. As well as, more to the point here, LA GRANDE BOUFFE. Ostlund is a big devotee of 70s European cinema. I'm sure he is well aware of that precedent