Satire is one of the best ways to deeply examine aspects of society and a new release in theaters does just that. Triangle of Sadness begins with male model Carl (Harris Dickinson) and his model/social media influencer girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean) juggling the world of fashion while figuring out where their relationship is headed. The couple find themselves on a luxury yacht cruise in the company of the super rich. The cruise begins idyllically, but after a series of crazy events, Carl, Yaya, and some of the other passengers and cruise staff find themselves shipwrecked on a deserted island. As they try to survive, social conventions are upended.
Triangle of Sadness cleverly uses satire to examine class stratification within our society, juxtaposing the disparate treatment of lower class people, who are portrayed in the film as disproportionately non-white, and their upper class peers. The film is separated into three parts, the first entitled “Carl and Yaya” which introduces us to the main couple. It is in this first act that we are shown the higher class social mores and concerns as the young couple spends most of this time arguing over who will fund the extravagant dinners and hotel stays that they enjoy in keeping up the luxury appearances that are standard for young models like themselves. We see the concerns that they have over money and pressures they face, to the point where resentment builds and they don’t even enjoy each other’s company, instead focusing on how slighted they feel for having had to spend on each other.
Part 2 of the film, entitled “The Yacht”, takes us aboard a luxury yacht where the couple joins even wealthier older passengers who have an entire crew at their beck and call. Here, the inequality between classes is made even more stark as we see how the über rich Interact with the staff who have less power than they do. The most effecting example of this is an interaction between staff member Alicia and an older Russian woman. At first, the woman appears affable and friendly, encouraging Alicia to live in the moment and join her in the pool on the yacht’s deck. Alicia of course cannot fraternize with guests and politely declines the offer. The woman however, continues to pester and browbeat Alicia, gradually moving from playful to demanding, wielding her power to force the staffer to bend to her will. Part of this conversation is played for laughs, fitting into the satirical structure of the film with a funny “Who’s on first?” routine where Alicia can’t explain that yes she is saying no to the guest, but the films theme is again hammered home about who holds more power among the classes and how they use it on the less powerful. Eventually, the woman succeeds in getting the staff of the entire yacht into the ocean on her say so, to disastrous results later on in the film. That too serves as fitting commentary on how the upper classes can hurt themselves through their own entitled conduct, an example of how Östlund has crafted an all-encompassing look at the subject.
Writer/director Ruben Östlund employs camera work to visually bolster the film’s theme when we first meet Abigail (Dolly De Leon) as Carl and Yaya rudely dismiss the yacht’s housekeeper while she stands on one side of cracked open room door, with camera pulled in close on her face and the elegant wooden door, and they lie in bed, obstructed from view. The symbolism of the door serving as the barrier between lower class worker trying to do their job and rude upper class patron lying in the lap of luxury while talking down to someone serving them makes for a striking portrayal of the film’s point. Östlund also once again employs a visual example of the divide present on the ship as the above deck, mostly white staff, led by Chief Steward Paula (Vicki Berlin), celebrates the prospect of earning a bonus if all goes well by pounding and dancing on the floor while the mostly non-white below deck staff have to listen to their stomping in the bland, small break room.
Lest you think Triangle of Sadness is two plus hours of just preaching about how awful rich people are, the film strengthens its exploration of the power dynamics of social stratification in its third part, “The Island”, following the ship’s wreck. It is here that the classes are cleverly flipped through the presence of Abigail, who served as a cleaner on the yacht but through her practical and hunting skills on an abandoned island becomes the “Captain” of the stranded survivors. At first, the audience is made to enjoy Abigail giving the rich passengers their comeuppance and letting them know that she is now in charge, but Abigail soon succumbs to the power she has attained, unethically using her control of resources to control Carl. That Abigail immediately turned into a version of the kind of persons we knew the upper class to be on civilized land as soon as she was given the opportunity calls upon the audience to ponder the nature of power and wealth and what it inspires in the human psyche. A lesser film would simply frame the rich as bad people at their core, a black and white framing of who they are, but Östlund challenges this and presents us with grey; would we all be like those snobby rich folks if only we had access to their resources and power? Is anyone with that much wealth destined to become corrupted? The film’s ambiguous ending confronts this head on as Abigail is faced with the potential end of her reign as the island’s Captain and a return to her former, lower class life, a prospect that she does not respond well to with her final decision not shown onscreen.
Triangle of Sadness is how satire is supposed to be, funny and engaging, but cleverly driving home its examination of a social issue and forcing the audience to think about its dynamics. Writer/director Ruben Östlund has crafted a cohesive, well-paced, story about the income and status inequality in our society, but does so without preaching or scapegoating one side, instead focusing on the nature of humanity as a whole and asking if things would be so different should the shoe ever wind up on the other foot. The cast performs well and are believable as each archetype, complete with the requisite chemistry to pull the audience in. There is so much more that could be written about the intricacies of the film and its theme, but its best if you quit reading this review and just go see this film for yourself.
Image: NEON
