Tobias Henriksson
“Eat the rich” has become a rallying cry over the last decade, as income inequality continues to rise. The pandemic has made the divide larger than ever, strengthening the sentiment. And while those at the bottom continue to struggle to make ends meet, those at the highest echelon of society are enjoying more wealth than imaginable.
This sentiment has led to a rise in films that attack this very struggle in exciting new ways, most memorable of which is Parasite, the winner of not only the Palme d’Or but the Best Picture Oscar in 2020. The time has come for a new film to be the symbol of our times, and it’s yet another Palme d’Or winner: Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness. If the Academy has any taste, Triangle of Sadness may follow in Parasite’s Best Picture-winning footsteps. But the film is likely too off-kilter and, frankly, batshit wild to warrant Oscar consideration.
Triangle of Sadness doesn’t merely eat the rich: It eats them, spits them out, puts them back in a blender, and gulps them down. It’s a wicked and wickedly funny satire of the world’s elite, twisting around in ways you’d never expect, culminating in a third act that throws everything you thought you knew on its head. Before it gets there, though, Triangle of Sadness delivers an absolute tour de force in the form of the best, most disgusting, and funniest scene of the entire year.