Triangle of Sadness: Survival of the Richest

The target of Ruben Östlund’s latest class satire is a takedown of the tone-deaf rich on the high seas. Unfortunately, this satire doesn’t challenge the status quo but flatters like-minded individuals thoughts on class and wealth.

Following typical Östlund fashion, the Palme d’Or starts as an enjoyable comedy about the fashion world and then takes a dark, disgusting turn into an arthouse version of Lovewrecked. Before we get to sea, we start on land with Carl and Yaya who are professional models about to reach their peak of being marketable. There is a power imbalance in their relationship with Yaya being the breadwinner of the relationship yet they default to traditional gender roles where Carl should be the provider. This leads to an argument breaking out between the two. Their fight introduces the film’s overarching themes of gender, insecurities, and performative nature. As the film switches to the sea, the model couple finds themself at the bottom of the class hierarchy amongst the international rich as they continue to explore privilege and class on an unforgettable cruise from hell.

Since they are aboard a luxury yacht, the guests are certainly entitled to a yes for any unreasonable request they may have (including having the entire crew go for a swim which the guests will pay for later). The yacht represents literal levels of society with the rich guests, middle-class interior staff, and low-level cleaning crew. As audiences become comfortable with their current setting, a raging sea storm dismantles the societal expectations of the uber-rich through vomit. Amid the chaos, socialist captain Woody Harrelson and Reagan-crazed Dimitry go head to head in a drunken duel over their ideologies. As it seems like things could potentially settle down, Östlund forgets the yacht storyline and dives into another separate act that is a pure survival story flipping thoughts on class structure on its head.

While Östlund isn’t adding anything new to the conversation in class, he delivers three hours of a well-detailed, character-rich social experiment in the most intense situations. Dolly De Leon and Woody Harrelson are standouts in their respective acts, but the real star here is the screenplay. It is the small-scale scenes Östlund includes that deliver the most comedic moments of the story. It seems like he is more focused on how his characters will adapt and react to the torture he subjects them through versus what will they take away from it. The only concept he follows through on is discomfort shown through his use of buzzing flies and yelling donkeys. His view of power structures is interesting as he expresses how they remain the same throughout different scenarios. Even when our island survivors have nothing they resort to what they know, classism and currency.

He is saying we are all the same, some people just have more.