Triangle of Sadness: NZIFF Review

Director Ruben Östlund knows how to orchestrate the awkward.

His Force Majeure took a moment of rash behaviour and transferred it into a whole world of existential dread. But at its heart, that behaviour was grounded in a human truth many of us are unwilling to acknowledge in the open.

Östlund's back at it again with Triangle of Sadness, the second of two foreign films out this year which looks at an unhealthy relationship (the first being Norway's Sick of Myself) and lays bare the minutiae of human dynamics and discomfort.

This time around, Östlund focuses on Carl and Yaya, two influencers whose stars are waxing and waning at different times, but whose incessant need for oxygen keeps them in each other's orbit.

Carl (Harris Dickison) is enraged that Yaya (Charlbi Dean) won't pay for their dinner in an expensive restaurant, despite saying she would fork out for the food. Obsessing on this point on principle, Carl orchestrates a row between the two that would necessitate a fallout due to the imbalance in the relationship - but the pair end up reconciling and soon find themselves on a yacht populated by the super rich, thanks to Yaya's online profile.

However, things go somewhat awry for the duo when a perfect storm of greed, and a typhoon hits the ship.

Triangle of Sadness is utterly hilarious in parts - thanks largely to a sequence involving a captain's dinner, a storm, and a grotesque mash up of Stand by Me's most famous sequence and seafood.

But the 150 minute film stumbles and loses its way in its final third part, (the film's divided into three sections) proving to be as washed up in its dynamics and narrative as its cast members' characters are. 

It's possible that in truth, no one really feels sorry for the super rich, and Östlund's targeting of them feels like shooting fish in a barrel, despite his penchant for laying bare the class elements that come to the fore. There are some savage moments as Östlund delves into the dynamics, but it's tricky to care for the grotesque when they're so readily available to be mocked and so horrible in their behaviours anyway.

Centre to proceedings is the aforementioned captain's dinner sequence which is disgustingly compelling comedic viewing that really ramps up the grossness jettisoning the social satire. Perhaps this is the film's biggest flaw - it doesn't quite zero in on one target, preferring to slather all of them with various levels of blame and horror.

There's wickedness on show in Triangle of Sadness, but in truth, that falls by the weyside as Östlund meanders toward the end. It's still superior, but its lack of focus toward the end means you're left feeling this triangle has little point.