LFF - Triangle of Sadness
Still from Triangle of Sadness (Curzon)
My first Ruben Östlund joint – Triangle of Sadness – is a rip-roaringly hilarious, nausea-inducing, and brilliantly on-the-nose comedy blockbuster. This 2 hour & 30-minute monster is bloated in every sense of the word: consistently funny, almost anthological, and bursting at the seams with gloriously disgusting moments.
Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (the tragically late Charlbi Dean) are a couple bickering. What about? The classic ‘Who pays the bill?’ debate. Both models, they are invited onto a luxury yacht vacation that quickly spirals into chaos amidst the grating presence of the ultra-wealthy.
Seeing this with a large audience is essential, as you’ll want to experience the most disgusting scene of the year as a union. My experience was enhanced by the rumours floating about before the screening (“Have you heard about that … one scene?”). However, nothing could’ve prepared me for the stormy night sequence. It’s an orchestral symphony of chunder and backdoor trots that eventually culminates in side-splitting disaster.
The satire in Triangle of Sadness is about as subtle as a brick through the window. Weirdly, this seems to improve the sheer ‘piss-takedness’ of the thing. The laughs come hard, heavy, and often. It could be easy to criticise this film for being so proud in its voraciousness on how bonkers the super-rich are, but I think it ultimately served the tone. This isn’t prudish satire – and it never pretends to be. I would call it a schadenfreude-flick above anything else.
The separation of Triangle of Sadness into chapters is its primary weakness. Every segment is unique, and the third is oddly wholesome until its dying breath, where it then turns into tragedy. From my perspective, it would’ve been better to have stuck firmly in the loony splendour of the second chapter and remain in a single location.
All in all, this is a movie that inspires a whole lot of feeling. Whether that’s hilarity, revulsion, or melancholy, it’s all extremely point-blank. If that sounds like it might annoy you, fair enough, but the entertainment in Triangle of Sadness is not one turn your nose up on.
