Don't let the name fool you.
"The Triangle of Sadness" is one of the funniest things you will see this year in the cinema.
This is a wild, entertaining and uninhibited film that combines high and low, between art cinema that wins awards at festivals and comedy of bodily secretions in the style of "crazy about Mary" - all this to provide a repulsive and unforgettable experience, any connection between it and delicacy and sophistication is purely coincidental.
As he wonderfully demonstrated in his previous films ("Force Superior", "The Square"), Swedish screenwriter-director Ruben Ostlund likes to take his characters out of their comfort zone - protected by social conventions and behavioral norms - and watch them as they squirm helplessly.
squirming helplessly.
"Triangle of Sorrows",
In his previous film, "The Square" (which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), the target was the tie-dyed and ridiculous world of art.
In his new film (which also won the Palme d'Or), Östlund aims his guns at the Upper Islet, and specifically at a smug and spoiled group of billionaires sailing for pleasure on a luxurious yacht.
The events are presented through the eyes of two photogenic Instagram models (Harris Dickinson and Charlby Dean) who are invited to take part in the cruise because of their beauty, not because of their intellectual skills or the size of their bank account (in the first part of the film, the two are seen arguing over who will pay the bill at a restaurant).
The triangle of sadness
Triangle of Sadness - Official trailer courtesy of LevCinema
Along with them on the yacht are a couple of arms dealers, an oligarch who made his fortune from fertilizer, a mega successful hi-tech man and more.
The ship's crew is led by an alcoholic, Marxist, dowager captain (the excellent Woody Harrelson), who thinks it would be funny to serve the ship's big gala dinner just as a storm is raging outside.
He is right, of course.
It's really funny.
All the characters that Östolund puts on the screen are well characterized and perfectly cast, but the show is stolen by Zlatko Borich, the "King of Shit" as he defines it, who enters into a heated, alcohol-fueled discussion about materialism with Captain Harrelson while the winds are blowing and the ship is rocking in all directions.
Charlby Dean, who tragically passed away last August at the age of just 32, also does a great job in what turned out to be her last film appearance.
A Marxist and a Dwakaist.
Woody Harrelson in "Triangle of Sorrows",
Of course, Ostlund also has a few surprises up his sleeve.
In the third and last episode of the film, he creates a new and grotesque situation that completely destabilizes the power relations, and the results are as amusing as they are horrifying.
The "Triangle of Sadness" may not renew much.
But it is precise, polished and done with great talent, and Östlund steers the yacht, his characters, and also the audience, with the hand of a master.
His extremism will not suit everyone, that's clear.
But it cannot be argued that he does not go to the end.
And it cannot be said that it does not provide full value for the price of a ticket.
I had a lot of fun.
"The Triangle of Sorrows", Sweden 2022
Score: 8
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