Harris Dickinson makes light in Triangle of Sadness. Courtesy Sharmill Films
M, 147 minutes
5 Stars
Review by © Jane Freebury
If the big name fashion brands feel needled by the way their advertising is sent up in the opening scenes of this black comedy, it’s likely they will be good sports about it. The entire fashion industry gets a serve, along with the business of luxury cruises, the social media influencers who peddle brands, and the way that service industries cater to the rich and famous.
For an encore, Swedish writer-director Ruben Ostlund is having good fun once again at the expense of the privileged uber rich. He gave them a serve in his satiric take on the art world in The Square, and before that with Force Majeure that was set on the ski slopes. How intriguing to read he started out making films while working at the alpine resorts.
This is a filmmaker with quite a gift for holding a mirror up to society, and making us laugh at the foibles of others and at our own absurdites, despite ourselves
Since he debuted at Moscow Film Festival where he won an award, Ostlund’s subsequent features have debuted at Cannes, including his two most recent films, The Square and this film, Triangle of Sadness, both winning the Palme d’Or.
We begin our journey with Carl (Harris Dickinson), a young male fashion model who was in high demand but is now on the wane. He’s still in the business, although earning a third of the income of his female fashion model girlfriend. If there is any character arc over the course of events, it is his.
He loves with girlfriend Yaya, but he’s unsure of her feelings and must now sit and watch her stalk the catwalk from the back rows. It is sad to read that the young South African actress playing Yaya with such brio, Charlbi Dean, passed away recently.
The dynamic between the young couple is laid out in excruciating detail in an early scene in which Carl tries, with no success at all, to contest the way he was manoeuvred into paying the bill at dinner. The exchange between them is funny, clever, and we’re off to a brilliant start.
By the movie’s second chapter, The Yacht, the couple have managed to get themselves on a luxury cruise. Over dinner with other guests, a Russian oligarch Dimitry (Zlatko Buric) and two blonde women, his wife (Sunnyi Melles) and mistress (Carolina Gynning), we hear the young couple had managed to get aboard by exploiting their good looks. And what does Dimitry do? He sells shit, announcing this while exploding with laughter at his own joke. It’s fertilisers that have made him uber rich.
On another evening we overhear Winston and Clementine, an elderly couple from Great Britain, of course. It is revealed that Winston has become filthy rich through the international arms trade, which he calls upholding democracy.
Among the many funny scenes between staff, crew and passengers, there’s a drinking session between Captain Thomas Smith (Woody Harrelson), and the genial Russian oligarch. Each is his own man, and they are the only ones who don’t succumb to seasickness as a wild storm sends everyone else scuttling to the loo. Nothing discrete about these scenes.
Carolina Gynning, Zlatko Buric and Sunnyi Melles in Triangle of Sadness. Image courtesy Sharmill Films
It is a hilarious encounter between a Russian capitalist and an American communist who do their drunken best to outdo each other with quotes from the literary greats, then turn to readings from Marx over the intercom. Writer-director Ostlund’s left wing leanings are well known.
Another violent incident at sea leaves a small but representative band of people from the yacht on a deserted island, all set for their own version of Survivor, and the narrative’s final chapter
The tables turn, as survival takes on a new meaning. Everyone is desperate for food, preferably cooked, and this swiftly overturns the social pecking order. Only one of the group knows how to catch fish and light a fire, and this essential knowledge tips the narrative into new territory yet again as loyalties split along gender lines, and the characters reveal other sides to themselves.
Triangle of Sadness is executed with such confidence and skill that it rarely loses its momentum over the long running time. We often see social critique succeed at the Cannes film festival. This seering, satiric black comedy is one of the best of recent years.
First published in the Canberra Times on 24 December 2022. Jane’s reviews are also published on Rotten Tomatoes