Review: Triangle of Sadness
Models Carl and Yaya are navigating the world of fashion while exploring the boundaries of their relationship. The couple are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues' gallery of super-rich passengers, a Russian oligarch, British arms dealers and an idiosyncratic, alcoholic, Marx-quoting captain. At first, all appears Instagrammable. But a storm is brewing, and heavy seasickness hits the passengers during the seven-course captain's dinner. The cruise ends catastrophically. Carl and Yaya find themselves marooned on a desert island with a group of billionaires and one of the ship's cleaners. Hierarchy is suddenly flipped upside down, as the housekeeper is the the only one who knows how to fish.
Triangle of Sadness is one of many projects this year that has dealt with themes of class & the riches lifestyle. I can confidently say this is one of the best ones this year to do so, unless The White Lotus continues to thoroughly impress. The comedy is witty and sharp, gross and confident & certainly an incredibly entertaining watch.
In an already phenomenal year of film, Triangle of Sadness has the difficult task of making its mark on the year and try enter Oscar conversation, which I do believe should get that kind of recognition. Dolly De Leon is absolutely fantastic, utterly hilarious & by far the standout. Despite great performances by the entire cast. The screenplay is sublime and compliments Ruben’s passionate directing.
However it won’t exactly be for everyone, it’s subtle in a lot of storytelling ways. Whether it is through character development, which becomes a lot more complex the second they arrive on the island or it’s visual storytelling. Some may find the second half to be a weird switch, but for the most part worked for me. But what didn’t personally work was the ending & my overall attachment to the narrative, while the ending feels enough, it felt incomplete in unusual ways when the credits rolled and I can’t point as to why. As much as I love stories on the rich & critical of them, I can’t say I was too engrossed in the overarching story, despite my complete engagement. As thrilling as it is to view, I couldn’t imagine myself rewatching as I’m left with the feeling of enough satisfaction, I don’t need to revisit.
The soundtrack is great. The cinematography is great. The cast is great. Everything was great. One of the most interesting & entertaining films of the year, I can confidently say this has great Oscar potential and one I would recommend to many.
