A new year begins awash with fresh hopes and desires. Last year I really enjoyed getting amongst the award season contenders, but I don’t know, the movies ahead of us right now aren’t appealing to me on face value so far – The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans could be good, and I would be looking forward to Babylon if I hadn’t already heard of so many chaotic and mixed reviews. But let me shake off my holiday mode, and lean on Triangle of Sadness to lure me back to the cinema. This feeble attitude I hold breeds opportunity for the marketplace to pleasantly surprise me… Goooo movies! 🎆
If COVID hadn’t already decimated cruises! Triangle of Sadness pretty much details all the reasons why cruises stink, from pompous passengers, seasickness, and shipwreck. Cruise movies are almost a genre to their own, (Let Them All Talk, Boat Trip, The Imposters, are a few that spring to mind), often underpinned by a sense of freedom and extravagance built into the experience. This movie can really be separated into three parts, although this is true only in hindsight, as the movie drifts along in real time almost like a toddler wrote it; because you know how our young humans will make up stories that flit around from place to place erratically, without seeming to have any real point or structure? This movie begins with model Carl (Harris Dickinson) and his influencer girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean) arguing over their attitude towards who should pay the dinner bill – a fight that feels dangerous, as it’s not often that mainstream movies wish to tackle a negative male insight on gender roles 👍 It’s also a fight I’ve personally had before, which is probably why I’m single 😬 Then Carl and Yaya go missing, or rather ‘blend in’ for a time, while we’re on the luxury cruise, and mingling with the other guests and crew. Then the movie gets best at the Captain’s dinner, and the shipwreck that occurs near after. I was never bored and quite amazed that I was loving every minute of Triangle of Sadness despite the movie’s meandering drift. I never knew what was going to happen and every outlandish thought I had seemed legitimately on the table. And still, the movie always felt in control; it must’ve been written by the best toddlers.
More often than not, a mega vomit scene would be gratuitous, but this one in Triangle of Sadness isn’t because the movie uses it to illustrate how the crew are going to any lengths to maintain the cruise’s status quo. When the ‘shit’ salesman’s wife is in her wet undergarments, throwing up in the toilet and rolling around the bathroom floor as the ship sways on the seas, it was so funny to me – not an enviable position to be in, and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy, but it appealed to my most basic instinct, like laughing when a person slips over. Apologies to anybody I offended in my screening because I was the only one who laughed out loud 😂 When the movie turns into a ‘stranded on an island’ movie, which is another subset of movies and TV shows in their own right, it really moves to make its play, capitalising on themes of social roles and class divide that have been present from the start. As the lifeboat floats in and Abigail’s safety is completely overlooked for the water and chips, I thought there might be something of a story there, and the movie knows it too, using that moment to springboard the rest of the movie, and switch the power dynamic to where Abigale (Dolly de Leon) reigns supreme. The movie also reminded me of Matt Damon’s Downsizing, which also tried to be profound on the plight of social order, and had an unexpected romantic Asian lead as well (played by Hong Chau who was recently brilliant in The Menu – a fact I left out of my review). Abigail is a boss, and since I admire competence, I was instantly on her side. There might be a quick and applicable nod to Parasite too, I think, when Abigail grabs that rectangle-shaped rock near the end, and the movie leaves it to us to decide how far Abigail is willing to go to protect her new prestige.
This movie certainly demonstrates one way to produce an exercise on class without being preachy, or a clear allegory. It allows for small moments to compile and comment on theme, like the rich Russian women wanting all the staff to swim and disrupting the day, or the other Russian lady who can’t accept honesty when she wants the management to clean the sails. Or how about the sweet old arms dealers, who are so detached from their wares and the human casualty they bring? Since this is a situational movie, I don’t think it relies too much on character, and therefore, Triangle of Sadness can benefit from having less recognisable names and faces in its prominent roles – except for Woody Harrelson, who harkens back to his ‘Hunger Games Haymitch, as the drunken captain fed up with the façade. It would be fun to watch this movie again, and see where and how a character like Abigail is sprinkled into the background on the cruise before she arrives on shore, now knowing who will be important by the end – is she the same maid that knocks on Carl and Yaya’s door on their first day on the cruise? I don’t know, which probably makes me partially ignorant like the rest of the passengers, overlooking the help in light of the flashier travelers.
Triangle of Sadness is Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s follow up to The Square; a movie I haven’t seen myself, with Elizabeth Moss and Dominic West, but a movie I remember for seeing the trailer, and the fair share of praise it received back in 2017 too – I’ll have to put it on the list! And, well, considering a sluggish start to the year on my end, with the trappings of an Australian summer and tennis season getting the better of me, it’s nice that I’ve already found a movie I love. Triangle of Sadness rates somewhere between a high 4.5 and a low 5.0 for me, but I’ll evaluate conservatively.
4.5
Leave a Reply