Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness offers the best, and funniest, metaphor for the state of the world over these past few years. 

Two men are on a boat and they are arguing about the socialism vs. capitalism. Meanwhile, the boat is sinking. 

That one of these men is the captain of a luxury cruise ship and the other is a Russian capitalist who made his millions selling fertilizer just enhances the joke. 

Once again I hope you walk into this as cold as possible because the movie manages to shift its characters into a different venue twice and each time is delightful. I had no inkling of the film’s third act but it was wonderful. 

When writer/director Ruben Östlund first deals out the movies themes I was concerned. The last thing I wanted to watch was another expression of how rich people are evil. But this isn’t that and the movie is both too witty and too wise to let the audience get away with an easy explanation for human behavior. 

While the arguments on the ship perfectly capture politics in the English speaking world the situation in the latter part of the flick nails down the pandemic. 

Who is really important to society? How badly does the world need a CEO? Does it need that person as badly as it needs a truck driver, a grocery store employee, or the person prepping the food at a meat packing plant? 

If all you can offer society is that you can be beautiful on Instagram what will you be doing for work if that particular economy crumbles? 

Or, when the capitalist starts quoting Karl Marx you know things have gotten dire. Maybe we are all just a few bad choices away from the law of the jungle. 

I watched this on Oscar weekend doing my best to catch all the best picture nominees before the ceremony. And this movie proves that this year’s offerings are full of winners. My pick remains The Banshees of Insherin but nearly every other movie could win and I would remain satisfied.  

Theoretically, Triangle of Sadness ends ambiguously. Yet, I have no doubt as to what happened next. The last line, said by one of the main characters, sealed her fate.