Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Review of Triangle of Sadness, directed by Ruben Östlund
Triangle of Sadness was one of THE movies of 2022 I knew I had to see in a theater. I tragically missed it when I was covering the nEw York Film Festival for work because I knew I wasn’t getting into that screening.
I think the screening before it was a big one, and at NYFF, they give the people who attended the screening before priority access to the next screening directly after it. Unfortunately for me as well was this: Bones & All was the screening directly after the Triangle of Sadness screening. So with an elaborate sigh, I decided the fact I was not going to be seeing either movie during my time at NYFF.
But lo and behold, I bought AMC A List and bided my time. ToS was not coming to any theater near me, or at least the AMCs, and one day it came the week its run was supposed to end in theaters. Naturally, I booked my ticket immediately.
The theater was half-empty, but this was a crowd that liked to laugh, making the entire thing a great time overall. This is not a movie for everyone, but I think everyone should watch it anyways because there is a lot to learn.
A dark satirical comedy about wealth and class.
Triangle of Sadness is broken into three different narrative arcs throughout, but have the same two characters present throughout them: Yaya and Carl. The film opens up centering on Carl, who is a male model.
The opening scene is a peek into the process of what it means to get cast as a male model; a bunch of half-naked men wait in a room and are told by another man, wandering around with a cameraman, to emulate certain brands. Balenciaga is serious, while H&M is all smiles.
When Carl actually enters the room to see the casting agents, they remark about how he has a triangle of sadness and essentially looks like he has seen too much in life already. There are many underlying remarks about class and fashion throughout the opening section, as we pivot away and see Carl is dating Yaya, who opens up runway shows.
The runway show scene is a lot to unpack in itself—there’s commentary about environmentalism and the commodification of issues through the medium of fashion, as well as how Carl is immediately booted out of the front row for not being high status enough.
In a similar scene, where Yaya and Carl are out to eat at a nice white tablecloth restaurant, Yaya reveals that she has no money. Unsurprising for someone making a living as a model—a lot of models are paid in clothing, not actual money. There’s a lot of tension to their relationship already, which furthers in part two: the yacht.
We see how the yacht exclusively caters for the wealthiest elite. Yaya and Carl are invited for free because of how she is a social media influencer; as much as they pretend they fit into this world, they do not. This is shown when Carl ends up getting a worker fired for being shirtless after he gets mad that the man is talking to Yaya.
Carl puts himself on an elevated status to this man, thinking he is better than him, when, in actuality, they’re two sides of the same coin. The movie then elevates itself by taking on the POV of the workers, who are beautiful like models as well, but are forced to put up with the stupidest whims of the wealthy elite they’re serving.
There’s one person absolutely sick of all of this: the captain of the ship. He spends his time drunk in his room, and is eventually dragged out for the captain’s dinner later on in the second half. That dinner proves to be a complete and utter disaster because of how the staff is forced to cater to the guest’s whims.
The chef, despite knowing everything is going to spoil and protests it, is forced to join the staff event where they have to get in their bathing suits and go down a water slide into the ocean. Because of this singular decision, every single person who eats the food, minus the captain, gets food poisoning at the dinner.
Thus begins one extended scene where the rich Russian guy makes everyone believe that the ship is sinking, there’s vomit everywhere, and one of the toilets floods.
We think that this is the scene where the ship is finally going to go under, but when everyone recovers in the morning, the rich couple who found their wealth in bombs and weaponry are taking a nice walk on the deck. A group of pirates approaches the ship and throws a grenade onto where they’re standing. We all died in the theatre at this part because the grenade thrown at them the rich couple made, and they acknowledge that before it goes off.
Part three is about the survivors. Some rich, some not. A Filipina toilet cleaner takes charge of the group because she’s the only one who has an idea of what to do, and ends up stealing Carl as her man in the process. Yaya doesn’t like that, obviously, reversing the power dynamics.
She thinks she’s rich, but she’s not. So when she and the cleaner discover that they’re actually on an island hosting a luxury resort, the Filipina maid decides she needs to get rid of Yaya. Not only is she a threat to her newfound power, but Yaya doesn’t know her place on the food chain. Her comment about making the maid her assistant is not only offensive, but shows Yaya actually hasn’t learned anything from this entire experience.
Overall Thoughts
I love Triangle of Sadness, and I think one could spend hours picking apart every single scene contained within the movie. This is only a brief analysis and review, but it’s a pretty loaded movie.
If you’re into black comedy, then definitely pick up a copy for your collection and watch it. I think there’s a lot of rewatch value in this movie if you’re living in the current moment I’m posting this in, as that’s the truth of this generation.
Yaya and Carl are like a lot of people I know my age, falling victim to their circumstances and chasing after vanity instead of what they probably actually want in life. In the end, this is just a great movie.
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