Triangle of Sadness is a film in three parts. A 'triangle' of 'sadness' if you will.
The film begins with male model Carl and his influencer girlfriend Yaya. They debate over gender roles in society and it becomes clear that their relationship is purely for social media clout.
We, the commoners in the audience, laugh at the absurdity of these high-class types.
Then in the second part of the film, they're put on a luxury cruise with even more high-class types, of even higher class.
The merits of communism versus capitalism are debated, the guests' absurd requests are ridiculed and then for about 30 minutes there is a deluge of vomit and diarrhoea.
Part three of the film is technically a spoiler for the film, but it's also very much where the film is at it's strongest.
Without giving too much away, the idea behind the film's final act (which is almost half the film's runtime) is that the dynamic of the high and low class change and we follow as everyone struggles to adjust.
The satire from Swedish director Ruben Östlund won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival in 2022, the highest honour of the night. It received an eight minute standing ovation, which sounds insane to me, but go you, Ruben.
Östlund manages to ricochet the tone back and forth between moments where you're chuckling politely at the oh-so-silly nature of influencers obsessed with their image, to then having you howl with laughter or wince in disgust when those same influencers are violently crapping their pants.
Triangle of Sadness is nominated for Best Picture, Director & Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Certain scenes taken out of context don't seem like typical Oscar-fare, but as the Academy has moved to 10 Best Picture nominees, it's great to see a film like Triangle of Sadness recognised.
I wish I could tell you all about how excellent Dolly de Leon's performance is in the third part of the film. I wish I could tell you how the ending made me feel. But I want you to see Triangle of Sadness knowing as little as possible, with the biggest crowd who doesn't know what to expect.
That is the way this film should be seen, with a group of people wanting a high-class Oscar film, who's monocles comically drop when they see someone slip and fall down in their own puke.
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