Triangle of Sadness
The fashion industry, social media and late-stage capitalism are among the targets of this wild satire from Swedish director Ruben Östlund
After skewering the private view set with his previous Palme d’Or-winner The Square, Swedish director Ruben Östlund picked up a second Palme d'Or for this deliciously vicious satire going after the 1%. Presented in three chapters, each more satisfying than the last, he takes a sledgehammer to the global elite; rich folk haven’t been put through the wringer with such zeal since the days of Buñuel.
Our entry into this world of the super wealthy is a pair of bickering models: beautiful Yaya (Charlbi Dean) and her bae Carl (Harris Dickinson), who’s equally gorgeous, but his days in the fashion industry look numbered. During the hilarious catwalk audition that opens the film, he struggles with the job's rudimentary requirements of walking and looking good at the same time and a bitchy agent suggests botox for his forehead’s “triangle of sadness”. Probably not long for this world either is their relationship. Yaya proclaims that she needs someone who can take care of her financially when her looks go, and the jealous, needy, and crucially, poor, Carl doesn't appear cut out for the job.
Yaya's huge social media following gets the pair a free ride aboard a luxury cruise, where they find themselves rubbing shoulders with an obnoxious Russian oligarch with a fertilizer monopoly ("I sell shit", he proudly declares), a lonely tech billionaire and a sweet old English couple taking a break from arms dealing. If that sounds like the cruise from hell, you'd be right, although the atmosphere gets altogether more toxic during the aftermath of the Captain's Dinner, which features a wry cameo by Woody Harrelson as a conflicted Marxist steering this yacht full of capitalists.
The exact nature of what disaster befalls that Captain's Dinner won't be revealed here, to save spoiling one of the most outrageously funny sequences in recent cinema. In its aftermath, a new world order begins for some of the ship's passengers and crew, although this upended social structure proves as fallible as the status quo.
Many critics have suggested Östlund’s satire lacks nuance and his targets are so low hanging they’re already in the filth. And those critics are right. Triangle of Sadness is not particularly sophisticated in its critique of late-stage capitalism. That doesn’t stop its gags from being deliriously funny.
Triangle of Sadness is released in UK cinemas from 22 Oct via Curzon