When in doubt, punch up. Ruben Ostlund, who previously aimed for the art world in his Palme d’Or winning The Square, moves into more modern art, the Instagram influencer, with his latest, Triangle of Sadness. Barraging of information from ‘Grammers requires blunt force satire, which Ostlund gives the world, with amusing righteous laughter.
Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) are two models/Instagram influencers. Yaya makes more money than Carl, which he clearly struggles with come billtime. The pair get invited to a captain’s (Woody Harrelson) superyacht to mingle with a bunch of other rich people from all over the world, including Russian capitalist Dmitry (Zlatko Buric). They are meticulously cared for by ship crew like first mate Paula (Vicki Berlin) and custodial worker Abigail (Dolly de Leon), hoping for big tips by the end of the voyage.
Hierarchy and privilege are on full, obvious display in Triangle of Sadness. The opening sequence is delightfully acidic, openly mocking modeling shoots and auditions to prep the audience for the tone of the rest of the film. After an informative look into Instagram relationship dynamics via Carl and Yaya, we climb aboard the super yacht for some rich people evisceration. Ostlund’s not particularly subtle about his attacks, but it doesn’t matter. Portraying rich people as vain, overconfident idiots hiding extreme inferiority complexes is always good for a laugh. I particularly chuckled at the cute old lady lamenting her struggles during peacetime as a war profiteer, and Woody Harrelson and Zlatko Buric’s one upsmanship over who is the most hypocritical. Ostlund escalates the absurdity to an extreme level, as the audience delights with glee at the comeuppance these vile people get for their vapid, holier-than-thou behavior.
In the third act, Ostlund switches his story up. We get to see a new social hierarchy, where different characters see themselves in different levels of importance. Though this goes on for too long, Ostlund’s point lands clearly. Dishearteningly, whomever is at the top of the societal food chain is going to use that power for their own gain, usually at the expense of others. Also, there will be shameless desperate people willing to whore themselves out to rise to the top, by any means necessary. There’s always going to be winners and losers: only the context changes, and if you’re lucky, you have a skill that makes you one of the winners, and the losers don’t suffer horribly. This section is still pretty funny, too, as we see each character come to terms with their new lots in life.
The Triangle of Sadness is what someone in power uses to objectify someone’s forehead to drop them a few pegs in the modeling pecking order. I’m sure one of Ruben Ostlund’s rich people will have a memoir ghost written about them with that title. It will start as a triangle, then talk about how that triangle transformed into the Trapezoid of Temerity and Pentagon of Power. And even though that billionaire will not know what a trapezoid is, their book will make them more money that I will ever make in my lifetime. No, I’m not bitter about it, you shut up!