Rating: R
Runtime: 2 hours, 27 minutes
Director: Ruben Östlund
Quick Impressions:
I’ll confess, I kind of loved this movie. I watched it alone in the middle of the night because I thought it would be a hard sell to get my family to watch with me. (Can you imagine? “Hey seven-year-old son! Want to watch Triangle of Sadness?” To be honest, he might like the middle section of the film, as sheer novelty. He has such eccentric tastes. When he’s older, this might be a film he enjoys.)
So…okay. Sometimes I watch movies and don’t know if I like them or not. For example, Swimming Pool. I saw that with my sister, and we both thought it was awful at the time. Then two days later, I woke up saying to myself, “Wait a minute! I think I liked that!” (I’m still not sure.) Ten years after I saw To Die For, I unexpectedly decided, “Why did I think I hated that? You know, that was a really good film.” I still don’t like Magnolia, but if that ever changes, I won’t be surprised. As I watched The Favourite in the theater, I consistently asked myself, “What the hell am I watching?” Then I got home and decided, “That was the best film I’ve seen all year. I like it almost as much as the Mr. Rogers documentary. No! I like it more!”
This is one of those films.
As I watched last night, I thought, I’m not enjoying this at all. Then suddenly in the middle of the captain’s banquet I realized, “Okay, this is winning me over. When did I start enjoying it?”
It’s actually quite good. While we were watching All Quiet on the Western Front the next afternoon, I kept imagining wine bottles rolling across the screen at a slant, and then I knew, I secretly loved Triangle of Sadness.
The Good:
First of all, I love Paula and the captain (aka Thomas). They’re the only two characters I actually find sympathetic in the whole movie. She’s just trying to do her job. And he’s just trying not to do his job. I would watch an entire TV show about these two, even if it ran for ninety seasons. Watching, a part of me kept wondering, “If things went on uninterrupted, would she eventually turn into him? Was he once like her?” I love them both. I hate everyone else!
Okay, that’s not true. I have nothing against the woman who had a stroke (Iris Berben) or Alicia (Alicia Eriksson) who doesn’t want to go swimming. Honestly, even the characters who aren’t sympathetic are played by actors giving compelling performances. Zlatko Buric as Dmitry, the crass but weirdly charming man who made his immense fortune in fertilizer has so much screen presence and was perhaps my favorite character to watch.
Before I go any further, I should warn you that this is not a movie to watch while you’re eating. In some ways, it reminds me of that restaurant scene in the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life or that one scene in Bridesmaids. I’m not really spoiling anything to say there’s a lot of vomit (because you can’t possibly anticipate the amount there is even with a warning). Watching, I kept remembering flying home from Disneyland this Christmas. Twenty minutes into our flight, I started vomiting and never stopped for two hours. A flight attendant asked me, “Ma’am, were you sick when you boarded the plane?” (How do you answer that? Given the way viruses work, yes. But I promise, I didn’t know!) It was awful. So when characters on screen started vomiting, I immediately felt such sympathy for them (more like empathy). Perhaps that’s why I got so invested.
Woody Harrelson is so delightful in this section of the movie. He’s very likeable. In some ways, he’s like a Bogart protagonist or a Hemingway hero, except he never makes it to the hero part. This is the way I fear I seem to others when I say I’m depressed. He’s surrounded by luxury and comfort and even has prestige. But everything just kind of sucks, you know. It’s dishonest to pretend it doesn’t. It’s so easy to like him, but then you think, “You know, you’re not being very nice, Captain. Why do you work on this cruise ship if you hate it so much and have such contempt for everyone around you?” He could help people. No one in this movie ever helps anyone else. (Some people almost do, but they never quite manage it.)
That’s why I like Paula (Vicki Berlin) because I often struggle with executive function and organization, and leadership skills are valuable and helpful. Unfortunately, Paula doesn’t know how to fish (or to work for herself. She only knows how to work for someone else).
The satire in this movie is so biting, but it’s also borderline lazy because if you’re looking for something to skewer, our society is such low-hanging fruit. The message is very bleak. In fact, I’m not sure there is a message, more a meditation on how horrible everything is.
At first, I wasn’t sure I would like the movie (though I certainly need to relax my triangle of sadness. I have permanent wrinkles there now thanks to my resting panic face). Initially, I kept trying to dig into the relationship between Yaya (Charlbi Dean) and Carl (Harris Dickinson) and figure out whose side I was on. Then I realized, “You know, I don’t like these people.” (I like the actors. The performances are good. It’s the characters who are so off-putting.)
(Honestly, I think the movie puts us more in Carl’s headspace, but Yaya is more appealing to me. She’s honest with him, and by part three, I thought, “Oh she’s right. She can’t rely on him to take care of her.” I find him confusing, trying to dictate all the terms of their relationship. “Let’s be equals. Now that should make you be in love with me.” She tells him the relationship is transactional and convenient career-wise, but he insists he’s going to make her fall in love with him by doing the opposite of what she wants. It’s very weird that he expects this to work. Maybe he’s been reading romance novels.) (Actually, I think he’s been reading James Joyce, which probably hasn’t helped him much.)
They’re both kind of awful, but then they go meet a bunch of people who are even worse. Maybe. It’s unclear precisely how morally bankrupt the rich people on the boat are. Some of them just seem out of touch. Many of them are awful accidentally.
I do have some sympathy for Instagram influencers because I hate it when people tell me not to be on my phone in public places. Taking pictures is an excellent way to narrow your focus and control what you see in an overwhelming environment. When Dmitry turned out not to be a jerk about it, I thought, “I like this horrible man.”
Then in act three, we get a sudden focus on Abigail. Dolly De Leon has won a lot of Best Supporting Actress awards for her performance, and it’s easy to see why. Her final scene alone seems compelling enough to get Oscar attention. De Leon is great. Abigail is aggravating. I remember when my mother told my oldest son the story of the Little Red Hen when he was four. He was distressed by the ending and insisted, “She should have shared with them anyway because no matter what they did, she knows she would want someone to share with her.” And I thought, That’s right. That’s a better ending to the story. Be the bigger person. Nobody helped you? You help them anyway.
What’s bizarre to me is how quickly the others accept the new order. They have no skills at all? Not even the skill of watching and learning? Anyone can watch and learn. These characters are so weird! The only one of them who really uses his skills is Carl.
I guess I don’t need to dig into the plot here, but this is a thought-provoking film, one I don’t even need to rewatch to replay in my head. One of the most compelling and unusual things about the film is the longer we spend with these characters, and the more we see of their awful behavior, the more sympathetic they become. For the most part, they’re kind of awful people, but they’re all weirdly sweet, and you watch and feel terrible that these horrific things are happening. Nobody should get what they deserve! I think this happens because although so many of the characters are so vaguely awful, nobody is good. So there’s no real contrast. You just feel sorry for them because they’re products of the same horrendously dysfunctional society that we all share.
The performances are all quite strong. (Because I haven’t mentioned them yet, I’ll add that I loved Amanda Walker and Oliver Ford Davies as sweet little old arms dealers. They’re kind of like the Brewster sisters in Arsenic and Old Lace, but worse.)
And several images stick in my mind, so I should also compliment Fredrik Wenzel’s cinematography.
Best Scene Visually:
The Captain’s dinner is when everything truly begins to go sideways. It’s hard not to be captivated by the strange, nausea-inducing tilt, and the periodic wine-bottles rolling across the screen.
Best Scene:
If Dolly De Leon gets an Oscar nomination, it will surely be because of her performance in the film’s final scene. I won’t spoil it, but De Leon packs so many thoughts, emotions, motivations, into just a couple of minutes of screentime.
I also love the moment when Alicia (Alicia Eriksson) struggles to say no to a guest (Sunnyi Melles) who desperately wants her to go swimming. Eriksson is really good in this scene, and as someone who often struggles to say no, I felt her pain.
Best Action Sequence:
It’s hard not to love the escalating friendly exchange between the Captain and Dmitry that culminates in the disturbing messages broadcast all over the ship.
The Negatives:
If you do not want to see gross things, you will not make it to the end of this movie. Imagine the second half of Titanic, but instead of water rising, it’s just vomit (or maybe something related). If that image makes you sick to your stomach, you probably shouldn’t watch Triangle of Sadness. It’s probably a spoiler to mention it, but I feel this film legitimately warrants a trigger warning because some people will find the middle of it so disgusting, they will not be able to continue watching. I’m serious. It’s very gross. For a long time. And your view will also tilt to the point that you might get seasick watching. I’m positive somebody will puke watching this movie. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The film also looks at humanity through a brutally harsh lens. In that way, it reminds me a bit of The Favourite. If you don’t like to look at people in an ugly way, this film may not be for you.
Also, this is not the kind of movie that will bring you escapist delight as you enjoy your popcorn. Don’t watch it for that. It’s not that kind of thing.
It’s a comedy, but I don’t know that I ever laughed one single time. (I’m trying to remember.) It is funny. But it’s funny later. And most of the humor derives from the general horribleness of our world. We live in such a broken society.
The funniest thing about it is that the people in act three take so long to do anything for themselves. I’m an utterly useless person myself with few practical skills. But in the same situation, I am positive, I would start cultivating skills fast and actively seek a solution. (The terribly ironic part is that what Yaya does doesn’t even take her that long.) I’m also confused about what Abigail is planning ultimately, and why she just doesn’t seek out this type of set up in a more sustainable way. I need some more time to think about the ending.
I think the Captain’s character is a good reminder that people capable of seeing and despising the flaws in our society don’t care enough to try to fix them (especially because no one will help), which is realistic and depressing. Maybe the outlook is too bleak here. In real life, people are nicer than this. Even rich people. Some are.
Overall:
I want to watch Triangle of Sadness again from the beginning now that I’ve seen the whole thing. It’s quite thought-provoking, and the middle section is fun (mainly because of Woody Harrelson and the cinematography) even though large portions of it are incredibly disgusting. Ultimately I liked this film a lot, but I wasn’t sure I would as I watched the beginning.