The question of worth flows through Ruben 脰stlund鈥檚 鈥� ,鈥� a handsomely grotesque satire about the guests and workers aboard a luxury yacht. The ideas might not be new, and the targets might be easy, but the Swedish filmmaker who has made a cottage industry out of picking at social scabs in films like 鈥淔orce Majeure鈥� and 鈥淭he Square鈥� has once again made something exceedingly uncomfortable and undeniably entertaining.
Besides, from 鈥淪uccession鈥� to 鈥淭he White Lotus,鈥� it鈥檚 not like we鈥檒l ever tire of watching the privileged class enjoying its privileges, to quote 鈥淭he Philadelphia Story鈥檚鈥� Macaulay Connor, regardless of whether they get their comeuppance in the end.
The beauty and pleasure of something like 鈥� 鈥� is in the details, like the well-observed and precisely crafted awkwardness over who should pay the restaurant bill, or the rules about who gets to sit in the front row of a fashion show shifting in real time. The ideas about class consciousness aren鈥檛 anything that a college freshman isn鈥檛 already well-versed in. But even when the movie starts quoting Marx, it鈥檚 done with a wink and amid a deluge of bodily fluids. Seasickness really is the great equalizer (consider yourself warned).
The title, 鈥淭riangle of Sadness,鈥� 脰stlund says, is a reference to the wrinkles in between one鈥檚 brows that plastic surgeons can fix with a shot of botox. It鈥檚 not a phrase I鈥檝e ever heard 鈥� worry or frown lines seem to be the common ways to describe that, but, apocryphal or not, it鈥檚 a good one. Here, our entry into the world of the one percent, are a model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean, a promising talent who ). Their only currency is their youthful beauty, which is lucrative for now.
After a sharp glimpse inside their public and private world, Carl and Yaya are invited aboard a $250 million yacht for a little vacation among a rarified set. Their ticket is paid for on the hope that Yaya, who is also a social media influencer, will Instagram the experience. The others on board have presumably paid their own way, with riches from big business 鈥� tech, agriculture and even arms dealing (embodied by the most harmless looking English grandparents you鈥檝e ever seen).
The crew are reminded that every request should be met with a yes. In this transactional relationship, the hope is that their servitude is rewarded with a big tip. But what happens when a guest requests, then demands, that the entire crew take a break and go swimming on the afternoon when everyone is supposed to be preparing for the big captain鈥檚 dinner? Well, it鈥檚 the avalanche scenario of 鈥淔orce Majeure鈥� but with champagne and fine dining. They keep up appearances for a bit. Then it鈥檚 all vomit, blood and general excreta as Woody Harrelson鈥檚 drunk, Marxist captain and a Russian oligarch (a scene-stealing Zlatko Buric) opine on ideologies and quote Noam Chomsky over the loudspeaker.
This could be a natural conclusion to 鈥淭riangle of Sadness,鈥� but 脰stlund, who wrote and directed, still has one chapter to go focused on what happens when several of the guests and crew become stranded on a desert island. There, a character we鈥檝e barely met, Abigail (a terrific Dolly de Leon), who on the ship was the toilet manager, is the only one who knows how to catch and clean fish and build a fire. In this environment, her skills are the only ones that matter, and a new world order is formed.
The third episode on the island is not lesser than the others, but it does start to overstay its welcome. 鈥淭riangle of Sadness,鈥� which clocks in at almost two and a half hours, is at its sharpest before the symphony of bodily fluids and survival plots arrive. 脰stlund could have probably kept the whole story under two. But maybe the maximalism is part of the point since revolution certainly is not. The film won the earlier this year, a gathering that is not without its own excesses.
Maybe 脰stlund鈥檚 thesis was right there at the beginning, on the large screen behind the fashion show: 鈥淐ynicism masquerading as optimism.鈥� Again, it鈥檚 territory that has been covered before, but one only need look at the shenanigans currently happening at Paris Fashion Week to realize that for as hyperbolic as he tried to be, he only scratched the surface.
鈥淭riangle of Sadness,鈥� a NEON release, in limited release Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 鈥渟ome sexual content and language.鈥� Running time: 149 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
鈥�-
MPA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
鈥�-
Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
