Direction: Ruben Östlund
Country: France / Sweden / other
Palme D’Or winner, Triangle of Sadness, is a step down in the Swedish director Ruben Östlund's filmography, which includes Force Majeure (2014) and The Square (2017). This heavy-handed, neoliberal satirical comedy about inequality and class gaps is his first English-language film, and comes pelted with dark humor and irony. However, after a great start, it ended up grubby and silly.
In the first chapter, we are introduced to models and influencers, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), who show a bit of their personalities. On the passable second section, they embark on a luxury cruise marked by a captain’s dinner that won’t let you escape the nauseating wobbliness of repetition. Yet, the best sequences for me involved the interaction between a Russian capitalist who sells fertilizer (Zlatko Burić) and the alcoholic Marxist captain (Woody Harrelson) who despises each and every wealthy passenger on board. Some great dialogues are nearly absurdist at this phase. The third and last chapter is a complete disaster, sinking down the whole film in a blink of an eye.
If we're making picks for the most eccentric and anarchic flicks of the year, my enthusiastic vote goes to the hyped up Triangle of Sadness, even if the final result is not particularly satisfying. In this case, Östlund wasn’t smart enough to take some possible good ideas to better conclusions, preferring a cinema that is coarse, drastic and with no consequence. It can be funny at times, though.
