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Triangle of Sadness Movie Review

Triangle of Sadness is a 2022 internationally co-produced satirical black comedy film directed by Ruben Ostlund and starring Charlbi Dean and Dolly de Leon among others. It’s a pretty good movie.

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“A Russian capitalist, and an American communist“

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A cruise for the super-rich sinks, leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island. As a huge fan of ‘Force Majeure’, I was sadly very disappointed with the mediocre ‘Square’. Thankfully, Triangle of Sadness is a return to form for the director and this is where he actually succeeded at what he initially set out to do with that previous failed attempt.

A solid satire on wealth and class inequality, it honestly depicts just how inescapable your class is. You are born into it and you will mostly likely die as such. The movie also satirizes beauty standards, the modeling industry, social media and the complicated male-female dynamics and just how toxic they can turn out to be. That initial argument between the modeling couple that opened the film was fantastic and superbly written in dialogue and in situational humor.

Not all of the movie was as sophisticated. While I loved the final act of the movie set on an island and with intriguingly altered dynamics between the crew and guests, the middle act is where the movie suffered, in particular in its on-the-nose social commentary that was obvious from the get-go. The political argument that the captain has with one guest is actually quite amusing, but this critique of political alignments and their proponents did not fit with the rest of the narrative at all. In fact, it stuck like a sore thumb.

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Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean are excellent and very memorable as Carl and Yaya, the modeling couple who argue all the time. The frailty and jealousy on the behalf of the guy constituted some of the funniest moments in the movie. Dolly de Leon as Abigail was an absolute revelation. She delivered a superb performance as this worker turned matriarch that carried the entirety of the third act so capably on her shoulders. Other highlights include Woody Harrelson who is always a lot of fun and Zlatko Buric, who played this over-the-top Russian capitalist with a lot of charisma and humor.

Triangle of Sadness is very well directed by Ruben Ostlund and solidly structured. I actually found it to be well connected and certainly not as anthology-like as most reviewers commented. The editing could have been better, but the structure actually worked for me. Although not well paced at all, I’ve had a lot of fun watching this film as it was engaging throughout. The cinematography and production design were also great as the movie looked pleasantly sun-drenched and stylish.

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