Film Review: TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022): Ruben Östlund’s Bizarre Film is Strangely Absorbing with Some Fine Performances Throughout

Triangle of Sadness Review

Triangle of Sadness (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Ruben Östlund and starring Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon, Timoleon Gketsos, Alicia Eriksson, Zlatko Buric, Sunnyi Melles, Carolina Gynning, Iris Berben, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Henrik Dorsin and Arvin Kananian.

Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund (The Square) is back with another bizarrely fascinating new film titled Triangle of Sadness. Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean play the two leads in the new picture and have some of the oddest on-screen chemistry in recent memory. It is the supporting players, namely Woody Harrelson and Dolly De Leon, who steal the film from our two stars and turn in Oscar-nomination worthy performances in-between all the deranged moments the movie offers almost all the way through.

Triangle of Sadness opens with a male model shoot and soon we center in on two models of opposite sexes named Carl (Dickinson) and Yaya (Dean) who are having dinner at a fancy restaurant. When the bill comes, Yaya is off in la la land and Carl’s credit card is declined. Carl begins an argument over the uncomfortable thing known as money and Yaya seems a bit offended. This debate over finances carries over to their trip back home and is a rather annoying way to begin the picture which soon shifts its action to a cruise ship. There are some very wealthy people on the ship and we meet a colorful cast of characters with the most interesting being an American named Captain Thomas Smith (the always superlative Woody Harrelson) who stays in a room onboard while on a drinking binge.

An awkward character on board the ship is a man named Winston (Oliver Ford Davies) who asks Yaya and her female friend aboard the ship to take a picture of him to share with others. To his surprise, Yaya offers to take a picture of all three of them together to make it look like Winston is having a better time than he’s actually having. Also happening on board is the character of Vera (a well-cast Sunnyi Melles) is trying to get the crew of the ship to go swimming. One of the young female workers is named Alicia (a fine Alicia Eriksson) and she tries to tell Vera “no” to no avail as Vera gets very pushy with her until Alicia finally gives in and hops in the water.

The plot of the movie thickens when the yacht starts to go down, literally. Vera begins vomiting consistently and feces arises from the toilet and makes its way throughout the ship causing some ugliness that is further complicated by the political banter of two of the male people on board: the terrific Zlatko Buric’s Russian Dmitry character ends up talking risky politics with Woody Harrelson’s Captain Thomas. A grenade eventually finds its way into the hands of one of the passengers. When the ship breaks down into pieces, a few of our passengers luckily manage to survive but what happens next is not going to be pretty.

The best part of Triangle of Sadness is the character of one of the older female workers on the boat, Abigail, who survives the wreck. She’s played with exquisite aplomb by Dolly De Leon. When she comes between our would-be lovers, Carl and Yaya, there is tremendous tension that is created between the two young models. It seems Carl is drawn to the protection Abigail offers him as well as the structure that Abigail lends to the very unusual situation our characters find themselves in while being stranded on an island together with seemingly no clear way back to normalcy.

Yaya gets jealous of Carl who has his hand on Abigail under a table and the two models seem to be drifting even more apart than they were before Abigail got involved. De Leon pretty much makes this role her own and is tremendously appealing in her role of a lower end worker who becomes a group leader. As the film gets closer to its ambiguous conclusion, the audience is treated to a very peculiar love triangle. Yaya is so jealous of Carl’s attraction to the older Abigail that things get really complicated, even more so when, towards the film’s ending, Yaya and Abigail go on a walk together which is certain to lead this film to where its ultimately heading.

Triangle of Sadness is a well-made film that doesn’t seem as structured as its three parts would suggest. Instead, the audience is treated to some inane moments that feel as if they were improvised whether they were indeed or not. The constant repetition of the phrase “In Den Wolken” which translates to “In the clouds” also feels annoying at times, especially when the female character who says it the most is screaming it to a man who appears to be selling fake handbags on the island which is a weird scenario in of itself.

This film is ultimately like a bad dream come to life. It’s highly intriguing thanks to the presence of Harrelson and De Leon who are both Oscar nomination-bound if their performances can overcome the fact that this movie is not something Academy Award voters would typically embrace due to its bizarre nature. Dickinson and Dean’s characters are two mismatched people who probably would have never made it onto the ship in the first place given their awkward conversation about who is going to pay the check early in the movie.

While the very ending is certainly open ended, Triangle of Sadness could provoke some conversations after it ends and that’s something I like about the movie. For all its strangeness, at the end of the day, the film makes you think even if you are disgusted by much of what you are seeing while you are thinking about it. This movie wasn’t meant for a more conservative critic such as myself to fully enjoy although I must admit there were some very fascinating moments throughout. However, those who like daring originality coupled with some great performances and heavy themes even if the end result is a little lackluster, may find themselves greatly entertained by this very twisted movie.

Rating: 7/10

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