Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness delivers an unforgettable gut punch that extends beyond its simple premise. This winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, a highly satirical (and often hilarious) takedown of the uber-rich, is also a deeply resonant portrayal of the depths to which we all can sink.
The film follows a celebrity couple as they navigate their stormy relationship. The core of their journey takes place on a luxury cruise with the ultra-wealthy, where a seminal event changes both their situation and that of their fellow voyagers.
While some have criticized the film’s basic message as an overly simplistic interpretation of the rich-behaving-badly trope, Östlund’s approach produces an intensely profound manifestation of humanity’s capacity for evil.
The filmmaker’s ability to continually twist the film’s trajectory to flip each situation inside out has never been more effective. As is often the case with great art, the film’s straightforward premise is merely a strategy to delve deeper into a more insightful examination of its subject. This also enables Östlund to effortlessly shift the perspectives, a key element of the film’s evocative impact.
Much of Triangle of Sadness centres on the events of the cruise and the director’s proficiency at social commentary is at peak level here as passengers behave in the most entitled way—complete with ridiculous behaviours and nonsensical demands. The film extends into farce at this point before shifting into a secular style Buñuel-ian vision that is equal parts intolerable and hilarious.
It is in this section that Östlund hammers home his message. But we also witness his brilliant capacity (as seen in his previous work) for pushing the viewing experience into discomfort and beyond that into tragedy. Unsurprisingly for an Östlund effort, one begins to wonder whether he needs to keep it going for so long. But by engaging in this durational-style cinema, he pushes the audience’s discomfort to a point that garners and provokes greater realizations. A seminal question arises: how much do we really care about the suffering of these truly despicable characters? Not an easy thing to admit, and that in itself says plenty.
Triangle of Sadness becomes less of a spectacle that one sits at a distance from and becomes more of an experience that envelops. The experience shifts from being one in which the audience enjoys the nightmare that these terrible people must endure into one in which we must examine our reactions. Suddenly there’s more at stake, and it’s chilling to realize that one must take sides in an impossible situation.
Triangle of Sadness screens as part of TIFF 2022, which runs from September 8 to 18.
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