Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Director and writer Ruben Östlund is still full of withering contempt for rich people and modern life. Can you blame him? The likelihood is he always will be. There is a general drift from Force Majeure (2014) to The Square (2017) to his latest, Triangle of Sadness, of increasing outrage and disgust. I followed the reviews of Triangle from a distance and got the impression there was something gross and/or over the top about it. And so there is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen vomiting that is so convincing, vomiting being one of those things that’s hard to produce on command for cameras, take after take. It’s even harder than crying, going by what we’ve seen. Triangle of Sadness also takes on social media culture, featuring an influencer couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean, who sadly died shortly after the film’s release). Naturally they have a messed-up relationship. They work as models when they can and otherwise use their instagram-oriented status to score free stuff, as one does. For example, this cruise on a fabulous yacht with the ultra-rich—which leads us to the longer second and third parts of the picture, after a relatively brief introduction to the influencers. On the yacht, there’s a lot of Luis Buñuel’s Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie in the scenes, as the rich are presented as a mixture of the refined, the barbaric, and the childish, depending on circumstances. Lots of these characters are ridiculous and hilarious. Woody Harrelson plays the captain of the ship, who mysteriously holes up in his stateroom for most of the voyage and insists on scheduling the Captain’s Dinner when they will be traveling in anticipated stormy conditions. Sure enough, giant waves are crashing and the boat is rocking and rolling for the occasion, which leads to rampant seasickness among other disasters. A subsequent attack by pirates follows, blowing up the ship and leaving a Gilligan’s Island / Survivor quotient on a rugged island. The only person among them who knows how to fish and start a fire is a housekeeper named Abigail (Dolly de Leon), who quickly takes command of the situation in a scenario that represents a kind of grown-up version of Lord of the Flies. She buys sexual favors from Carl, for example, using pretzel sticks. She doles out bites of food to people who acknowledge she is the captain. Triangle of Sadness is predictable—not in the details, which can surprise, but the direction of it is always clear. It’s also funny and entertaining. And, yes, gross. If you haven’t seen Force Majeure, start there. I like Östlund better when he focuses on toxic relationships. If you have seen it—and especially if you’ve seen The Square too—then you know what you’re in for with this.