Triangle of Sadness

A satire that refuses to be simple or one-sided. Thanks to that, it is surprisingly accommodating of the audience and anyone with even a minimally open mind can pick up on the winks, nudges, and jabs. And yet it could really have been just a bit more balanced. While for many the captain's dinner was the highlight, I far more greatly enjoyed exploring the individual vanities and snobs, as well as the unpredictable, slow, but daring final act. After all, the dinner is the scene everyone remembers because of its accessibility, but it's that very overcooked quality that harms it. It does show how difficult moments are inevitable for everyone in the world, but there are too many of these instances. I picked up on the metaphor of wallowing in one's own bodily fluids the first time around; I didn't need it repeated so many times. Triangle of Sadness is not easy to recommend because its unnecessary length can be a turnoff for a lot of people, but the question "How would I behave in such a situation?" keeps popping up and every time it sets off a whirlwind of questions, which are not easy to answer even for yourself. (10/15/2022)

For me, on level with Parasite, and hands down the best film of this year’s KVIFF and quite likely one of the best films of the year. Sound social criticism with a stimulating, original script and wrapped in a very audience-friendly and entertaining package. Bursts of laughter assured, as well as amused disgust in the brilliantly staged captain's dinner scene, and a nicely ambiguous ending. (56th KVIFF) (07/10/2022)

A first-class social satire that takes on high society, influencers, models and the like in a subtle and sometimes wholesomely irreverent way. An alternative to Tarantino's masterfully pitched scenes, only without a splatter finale, although there are still various liquids splashing all over the place in the middle of the film. It's a shame that the most effective moments aren't distributed steadily, the second half is considerably less compact, not as entertaining, and basically you are only waiting for the finale. But the first half is so refreshing and so rounded in what it deals with that it is impossible not to admire it. A showcase of the inventive creativity of the makers of this low budget gem. (02/28/2023)

Östlund’s take on Animal Farm is a wonderfully biting and sardonic portrait of our society, which likes to talk about equality, but does nothing to promote it. Triangle of Sadness stylistically straddles the delicate line between the refined sophistication and complexity of Parasite and the delightfully carnivalesque and cheekily incorrect shallowness of Troma Entertainment’s social caricatures like Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and Shakespeare’s Sh*tstorm. Thanks to this, it also remains uniquely universally accessible and, at the same time, so multi-layered that each viewer will find in it a different character in whom they will see a reflection of themselves and their position in society, which is hopeless and desperately undignified, despite momentary illusions or supposed status. Östlund isn’t afraid to weave in the absurdity of today’s world of the young and aware as well as the old and secure, but he doesn’t neglect those in between, who keep the whole spoiled, civilisational circus going. With savage laughter, he lets the viewers enjoy beautifully served nuggets that stimulate our inner anger and maliciousness in order to dip us in the bile and show us the truly warped nature of gender roles and the social hierarchy of excessive capitalism. ___ PS: The icing on the cake in the film’s excellent cast is not Woody Harrelson, but Zlatko Buric, who hasn’t had such space and such a great role perhaps since the phenomenal Pusher 3. ___ PS2: I very much hope that the film will be distributed to multiplexes, because after watching it you will want to walk among luxury shops, where models promoting meaningless status symbols look at you from the display windows with sullen faces. (05/18/2022)

I understand that in a time when comic book adaptations and epic fantasy dominate the film landscape, Triangle of Sadness represents a sympathetic civilian deviation for a more adult audience. On the other hand, it is not an exceptional piece, let alone film of the year. After a promising start, where Östlund takes shots at the superficial world of modeling (I know, it's an easy target, but the hits are accurate), with each subsequent chapter it becomes increasingly annoyingly didactic. Not to mention that the middle part on the boat with the puking scene is somewhat funny, but it is also somewhat cheap humor that could also appear in undemanding Italian comedies from the 70s. I have higher expectations for satire. In my opinion, the casting is also problematic. Woody Harrelson functions as expected, Harris Dickinson delivers, and Vicki Berlin in the smaller role of the chief stewardess is interesting. Unfortunately, that exhausts my positive feelings about the ensemble. With all due respect to the prematurely deceased Charlbi Dean, she was merely a model cast in a film role, and I can think of a dozen actresses who, besides a glamorous face, could deliver acting performances two or three levels better. Dolly De Leon in her variation of the Rat King completely missed the mark, and Henrik Dorsin is forgettable. I will give it a weak four-star rating, but there is something missing here. The TV series The White Lotus was able to tell a similar story with considerably better results, and it's not just because of the larger space that a series offers. Overall impression: 70%. (11/18/2022)