Simon the Cinephile: Triangle of Sadness Review

Despite the buzz, I had been avoiding Triangle of Sadness for some time. Once it was nominated for Best Picture at The Academy Awards I caved, and I'm glad I did. I thought it was going to be just another on a long list of entertainment critical of the rich, offering nothing unique or interesting, I was wrong about that. While it is a critique of the wealthy, it's also a critique of the desire for wealth and power (or the perception of it) and the things people will do to attain and maintain it.

We start the film with an introduction to the world of fashion, and our main character, Carl. Carl is an English male model at a casting call. He is in a room, shirtless, with a bunch of other shirtless male models, waiting to be invited into the casting room. Also in the waiting room is a young, attractive, blonde, presumably gay man with a microphone and a guy following him around with a camera. The guy with the microphone walks around the room and humorously asks dumb questions of the models about their profession, like "you don't have to look good AND walk do you?". "It doesn't bother you to be in a profession where you have to fight off gay men who want to have sex with you?" The opening scene ends with this microphone man asking Carl to pose as if he's posing for a "smiley" brand, one that is cheap and accessible to any and everyone, like H&M. Then he asks Carl to pose like he's posing for a luxury brand, describing it as an opportunity to "look down on the consumer", a brand like Balenciaga. He invites other male models to join Carl, "H&M, Balenciaga, now H&M, now Balenciaga" back and forth, smiley, to off-putting. It's an incredible scene that sets the stage for the rest of the film.

After this scene, we are introduced to Yaya, Carl's girlfriend, who is also a model, albeit a more successful one. We come to find out that a big reason for Carl and Yaya's relationship is to boost each other's social media accounts and advance their careers. That doesn't satisfy Carl. The two of them are then invited onto a luxury yacht where they (and the audience) are introduced to the rest of the characters including Woody Harrelson as the drunken captain of the ship. I'm not going to go into any more detail about the plot but I gotta say I was surprised and intrigued.

Triangle of Sadness is certainly a critique of the rich, their arrogance, ignorance, and ineptitude. But it is also a broader critique of capitalism and its impact on all of our attitudes about basically everything. These attitudes are not limited to the wealthiest of us, they've infected everyone and screwed up our priorities. It's also about hypocrisy, hierarchy, and a variety of other things, I think there is symbolism in the boat itself for example, but I can't get into much of that without spoiling the film.

One scene that stands out is when "the help" begins chanting, "Money, money, money!" after a speech from the crew leader, enticing them to do whatever the passengers want in hopes of receiving a large tip. This is when I realized that Triangle of Sadness isn't only a critique of the rich, it's a critique of each social class and their acceptance (and pursuit) of the capitalistic prioritization of wealth and power above all else.

Another scene I enjoyed was when one of the wealthy women on the yacht asks the entire crew to do something that in any other context would be fun, but in this context was just irritating and inconvenient. It was such a good example of wealthy people thinking they are doing something nice but really it's just annoying.

There are so many other scenes in this movie that are witty, hilarious, outrageous, or surprising. Some of it is so subtle too, which makes me want to watch the film again. When I do re-watch it, I have no doubt that there will be new things that I pick up on.

The writing is biting, and the directing is excellent, Ruben Ostlund is certainly a talented fellow. I also really enjoyed the acting. I was not familiar with any of the actors in this film, except Harrelson of course, but my guess is I'll be seeing more of these people in the future given their performances.

While I don't think Triangle of Sadness should win Best Picture, I do think it is deserving of the nomination and I definitely recommend you check it out. I rented it on Amazon, but given that it is a NEON production it will likely be on Hulu in the near future.