Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Rated R, but for less than I thought. We watched the trailer and we started the movie and we were ready for another Blonde or Babylon situation.  Nope.  The worst part is the vomiting and toilets exploding sequence.  Yeah, it's bad.  But it's not the majority of the movie.  It's really one sequence that's way grosser for some people than others. That scene ruined my pregnant wife's day while I just kept giggling at it.  There's also language and violence.

DIRECTOR:  Ruben Östlund

I'm so overwhelmed.  I loved Triangle of Sadness and I'd love to go right into it, but I cannot stress enough how overwhelmed I am by what should be a fun hobby. I don't even know how I'm going to release these blog entries because I am getting closer and closer to the actual Academy Awards date.  From my perspective, I want my Academy Awards page updated with every movie that is up for something.  But that means mass-releasing all of my blogs at the same time.  Sure, this isn't a "you problem" as such.  But it is stressing me out unreasonably.

Somehow, Triangle of Sadness falls into the Venn Diagram of movie critiques for the 2023 Oscars, but somehow is forgivable.  I really need to point out that Triangle of Sadness is a comedy.  It's a very funny satire and I love it.  But I also believe that comedies should feel the most comfortable at the hour-thirty mark, not the two hour-thirty mark.  Also, as established by the MPAA section, it has a lot of gross out stuff in it.  In this case, very little of it is sexual so much as it is a bunch of rich people barfing all over and then sliding around in the barf.  I guess I could even argue that the movie is bleak because, it is.  But because it's a comedy, that bleakness is actually kind of hilarious.  Maybe Triangle of Sadness is a reminder that it's not what is being handled in a movie, but how it is being handled in a movie that makes a story good or bad.  Maybe I need to abandon those neoclassical precepts that I've been holding onto oh-so-desperately since my theatre theory classes from years ago taught me.  It's about ingredients.  Sure, we comment on the quality of ingredients because it is an element of a dish, but it is how those ingredients work in harmony that we comment on the film.  Also, people barf all over themselves.

​I loved Everything Everywhere All at Once.  It was one of the movies I had seen way before Oscar nominations were even considered.  (I mean, people are always considering Oscar stuff, but you know what I mean.) I have to say that I've been generally disappointed by the Oscars this year.  But I haven't been disappointed with Triangle of Sadness.  Yes, there is something special with this movie.  But honestly, I thought we'd have a handful of movies witih the same quality of Triangle of Sadness.  Triangle of Sadness's unique vision with something to say while still being entertaining is what the Best Picture nominees should all be sharing. Instead, my two big movies on the list are Everything Everywhere All at Once and this for quirkiness while appreciating Women Talking for what it is.Triangle of Sadness doesn't feel the need to be locked into a certain vibe to make it what it is.  I feel dumb for saying that it both seems rooted in reality while simultaneously embracing the absurd.  

I mean, I'm trying to guess one thing that couldn't happen.  I'm trying to even think of a character that doesn't seem real.  If anything, the movie is stressing the absurdity of reality.  The fact that it digs into the upper class makes it all the better.  So many of the bananas quirks of the characters is almost wired into the notion that no one leads an average lifestyle on this boat.  (Also, are there really tiny cruises for the ultra rich like this movie shows?  I don't know if I want to go on such a cruise.) Maybe that's what makes it such good satire.  If the role of satire is to expose the truth so we can either laugh at it or critique it, the insane personalities of the characters in the story highlight how distant from reality the characters are. It's odd though, because we don't really get the scathing criticism about the upper crust until the final act.  The movie, breaking itself into chapters, almost starts the film dead serious.  Okay, there's the pre-credit sequence that reminds you that you have signed up for a comedy.  The audition process for male models is almost a short film in itself.  (I never knew that male models were paid significantly less than their female counterparts and also, I don't know what my commentary for that should be.  I also have no investment in fashion.) 

But the film starts with a pretty down-to-earth fight between two titans.  Supermodels fighting is a new thing that I'm not used to really seeing.  That fight is the most grounded thing that happens in the movie, by the way.  If most relationships fall apart because of disputes over money, I completely related to it.  No one comes out of that fight looking shiny.  Because I'm male and make less money than my spouse, I tended to lean into Carl over Yaya very quickly.  Also, her name is Yaya.  But the director does something really smart with these characters.  If Carl and Yaya are the grounding characters in a movie that lacks a protagonist, that fight characterizes them beautifully.  Carl, in an attempt to make a fight peaceful, has somehow blown something that should be a normal discussion out of proportion.  His need to be liked and to be the good guy carries through the movie.  While they may both be 10s in terms of physical attractiveness (not my thing), the emotional divide between Carl and Yaya is telling.  Carl is holding on by the thinnest of strings and it is in everything that he says for the rest of the movie.  It's such a perfect relationship based on the notion that Yaya lives or dies based on social media followers.

The ship is almost a break from Carl and Yaya.  They're there and it is their story that gives the audience something to hold onto as the ship begins to careen towards its imminent destruction.  But since Ostlund is making a movie about satirizing the rich, that middle portion of the movie is the direct assault on the rich.  There's almost no story outside a peek into what the rich find fun.  It's odd, because the archetype of the rich is often considered the "other."   Like with The Menu, I don't really know who the target audience for Triangle of Sadness is.  Usually, we have the rich person as someone on the outside looking in; or more realistically, looking down.  But when you get a lot of rich people together and ask them to relax, something very telling happens.  Everything just loos a little sad.  I think it's Jarmo that is the most telling about this.  I mean, sure, I can talk about Carl and Yaya all day.   But Jarmo has the same insecurities that the poor do, only it's worse.  I'm talking about the scene where he has to attempt to thinly trick the pretty girls into taking pictures with him.  

The thing about the rich among the rich is that almost all power comes from disparity.  A rich person can afford to push a poor person around.  Giving points to the rich, it is probably without malice.  It's just that money has legs and tends to get further in a place without money.  But Jarmo has no disparity to take advantage of.   He's just a sad man who has no idea what it is like to have to market oneself.  It's kind of like how Elon Musk complains about real people problems despite the fact that he is one of the most privileged people on the planet.  Then Yaya.  There's the notion of always working and never working and I'm not sure where Yaya falls on that scale.  Yeah, I'm sure that the Hollywood elite (gross, I just said that) are watching this movie and laughing.  But the movie is meant to be for people like me, who aren't allowed to move their laptops too much in one direction or else the battery falls out and the screen goes blank.  Yaya is on vacation.  She's on this vacation because of ourobouros.  She has these tickets so she can Insta the whole thing, which is a vacation for her. But she really isn't on vacation, because the whole thing is being Insta'ed.  It's why we have the crew.  The crew, God bless the crew! 

Throughout the boat scenes on, the captain comes across as this Marxist.  I love every minute of Woody Harrelson in this movie and it's really weird that he's in the movie. But he represents the working man, despite the fact that he does almost no work in the story.  He dies the saddest death, knowing his own hypocrisy.  He even says so.  But contrast that to the crew's introduction.  There's this rallying cry around "money."  Every interaction has a bee-line to money. For all of the civility that the crew partakes, it's all because of money.  That love of money is what gets a crew member to have to break the rules while simultaneously upholding the rules of ensuring that the guests get everything that they want.  That girl, having to get into a pool with an old lady.  That's what I'm in this movie for.  Everyone having to abandon what they are doing, even on their much needed breaks, to go down a waterslide. Not only is it characterizing the crew as broken down shells of people, but it is about the fundamental disconnect with the working class.  Trust me, I now feel bad about chatting to any employee of a place ever.  I'd like to think that people liked me, but there are a fair share who probably roll their eyes at  me when I ask about their days.

So what is Abigail?  I mean, what is Abigail...besides perfect?  It's a great ending for this movie about the rich.  They lack all real world skills and would starve on that island if it wasn't for the lady who cleans the toilets.  As a means of comeuppance, it's perfect. But also, Abigail is ruthless. She's kind of the worst.  Her instantaneous corruption on the island is telling that humanity, beyond economic barriers, is willing to do anything for power.  Abigail has that power disparity.  She sees that no one can do anything and she embraces that distance that people have from comfort.  Still, it is wildly depressing.  (Side note:  Why does no one take the lifeboat that Abigail finds herself on?  That seems like it would be pretty secure and keep people away from sun exposure.) Yeah, the end makes for a wonderful Twilight Zone-eque end, where we have to wonder exactly how that scenario plays out as Rod Serling gives us a wry smile.  But in terms of message, it's remarkably bleak.

I adored this movie.  I really did. It's just the right level of coy.  I know that there have been a handful of movies that have relished in punching up, but I think that Triangle of Sadness is actually a story that seems to have a far clearer message than its peers.  I dug it.