Film Review - Triangle Of Sadness (2022)

Ruben Ostlund loves a target. And his directorial aim never wavers, whether he has masculinity and family relationships in his sights as in Force Majeure (let’s forget the flabby attempt at a remake in 2020) or if he’s going after the art world in The Square. It’s made him a favourite at Cannes, with his latest, Triangle Of Sadness, winning him a second Palme D’Or. But, if you’ve seen any of his films, you’ll know one thing for sure. His satire is never subtle.

This time he takes on his biggest subject yet – inequality, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. It’s the haves, the super-rich, who are on the receiving end of his particular style of satire in a film which is simultaneously funny and stomach-churning. That latter description isn’t used lightly. Models Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean in, sadly, her last film role) are making names for themselves as influencers and are gifted a holiday on a luxury yacht. Their fellow holidaymakers are all millionaires, their wealth coming from selling fertiliser or the arms trade, but it all counts for nothing when an on-board explosion wrecks the vessel and the survivors are washed up on an island. It’s all about survival and the holidaymakers find they’re ill-equipped to cope.

If you’re wondering about the title, it refers to the space between the top of the nose and the eyebrows. As model Carl finds out, it’s prone to frown lines and the yacht’s captain (Woody Harrelson) has them in abundance – unsurprising, given the motley bunch of bizarre eccentrics he has to keep happy during their stay. His love of the bottle is another inevitable side effect but the way Ostlund uses both him and the obnoxious oligarch Dimitry (Zlato Buric) to ram home his message has all the subtlety of the proverbial mallet, made all the more apparent by the events following the shipwreck. The 15 minute scene which has earned the film a certain notoriety – and provoked walk-outs at Cannes – is equally unsubtle. But when it depicts the combined effects of sea sickness caused by a storm and over-indulgence in dodgy looking seafood, what do you expect? What goes down must come up …..

The excess overflows from the screen and so does the hilarity. It’s an unsophisticated comedy, but one that can’t fail to make you laugh, whether it’s at the director’s non-stop sarcasm or at the more puerile humour, of which there’s plenty. Its shortcomings hardly matter, given its classy acting and its on the nose timing. As we struggle through the current financial crisis, there’s something immensely satisfying about seeing the idle rich stripped of all their luxuries, especially when it’s done in such a riotously entertaining way.