TRIANGLE OF SADNESS

An essential part of any successful satire is the need for a message that resonates. This is where Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness crashes and burns.

What makes a good satire?

First, you need a timely subject. Today's vapid culture wherein influencers make millions and cleaning ladies have to work three jobs to get by is as timely as any. This part Triangle of Sadness, which won the Palme d'Or in May, gets right.

Secondly, you need biting wit. Here Ruben Ostlund's film starts to struggle mightily, as the movie only takes broad, predictable swipes at the elite and even resorts to the kind of scatological humour you rather expect to find in a bad late-nineties teen comedy. High-brow this approach decidedly is not.

And then, the third essential part of a successful satire is the need for a message that resonates. This is where Triangle of Sadness crashes and burns. The final act of the movie clearly has Lord of the Flies on its mind, but Ostlund is no William Golding.

All he manages is an overlong, tedious, repetitive preach about how easily power corrupts and how the corrupted become idols of those lower down the food chain. As far as Palme d'Ors go, you can put this one in the WTF column.

release: 2022

director: Ruben Ostlund

starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Woody Harrelson