Triangle of Sadness is a biting satire on class, racism, and inequality that is by turns hilariously funny and very sad. This is Swedish director Ruben Östlund's second film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes (after 2017's The Square) and its Oscar nomination for Best Picture was well deserved (but always an outside chance). Östlund has said, 'Basically, all my films are about people trying to avoid losing face.' The extent to which the passengers and crew on a luxury yacht attempt, during a storm at sea, to do so is ludicrous and works well to unmask the oh-so-fragile pretensions we all wrap around ourselves to hide the basic equality of our fragile humanity.
The dehumanisation of consumer culture that renders people in the service industry as virtual slaves to the bored rich is cuttingly portrayed. The way white supremacist assumptions are upended and overthrown in the final act (especially in the penultimate scene) is chilling and at the same time a signal that the wheels are turning on centuries of misplaced racist assumptions. Not many films get the balance between humour and deadly serious messaging quite as right as this.
The dehumanisation of consumer culture that renders people in the service industry as virtual slaves to the bored rich is cuttingly portrayed. The way white supremacist assumptions are upended and overthrown in the final act (especially in the penultimate scene) is chilling and at the same time a signal that the wheels are turning on centuries of misplaced racist assumptions. Not many films get the balance between humour and deadly serious messaging quite as right as this.