Triangle of Sadness

A scathing stab at class divides.

The title doesn’t effectively sell how chaotically funny and eviscerating Ruben Ostlund’s social satire is.

He makes astute observations about small social niceties, but he pushes every awkward situation to the point where viewers gasp and wince.

There’s an interesting cast of mostly unknown actors (Harrelson excepted) and the film is very well staged. Maybe the Cannes accolade was a bit on the generous side, though.

For Östlund, subtlety is overrated. Triangle of Sadness shows us why he has a point. It’s a spectacular demolition of modern life, a disruptor movie full of ideas and nuance, as violent in its way as a Pieter Bruegel painting.

Triangle of Sadness doesn’t leave audiences with much to unpack thematically, but it’s clear-eyed and hilarious about the systems that enforce societal inequities and what might happen if they were ever to unravel.

I didn’t hate it…I just didn’t love it, the last act felt like it was spinning its wheels

I was rolling on the floor laughing

Although at times the charisma of Woody Harrelson can smooth the waters, this movie does not have the intelligence of Parasite -with which it has certain thematic links-, but neither has the audacity of the films of Radu Jude. [Full review in Spanish]

Ruben Östlund cements himself as the people’s satirist. Laying bare an incendiary critique of the 1% that never pats itself on the back, instead being the rare epic that invites its audience to take part in its blistering dismantlement of the idle rich.