For me a roller coaster ride starts with anticipation, along with some trepidation. Then excitement as the tempo builds. Then the sudden, sickening sensation of hurtling into nothingness as the floor of my stomach seems to disappear. Accompanied by the desperation of holding on to the rails, lest the rest of me too falls out, while a thousand Dementors are busy sucking out every breath from my body. And after millions of agonising moments, a slow, sweet realisation of respite as we near terra firma. I climb out dazed. Dazed and surprisingly alive. Alive, but not quite ready to go back for more. 

Triangle of Sadness is that roller coaster ride. I went through trepidation, anticipation, exultation and many other ‘tion’, only to have Östlund deny me much-needed respite. 

With ToS, master of dark humour and unrelenting camerawork, Ruben Östlund has joined the very exclusive club of two-time Palme d’Or winning directors. His entry gets this list of winners of the top prize at Cannes into double digits. The film has three sections and can be broadly and very inadequately described as the before, during and after of a luxury cruise. The quirky narrative hurtles through 147 minutes of run time and is embellished by some great performances. 

ToS is blatantly audacious and precariously provocative. ToS is minutely observant and intensely thought provoking. ToS is rip-roaringly funny and immensely gut wrenching. ToS is a wicked, unpredictable satire that spares nobody as it looks at modern society with its divides, hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies through an unfiltered lens. A young couple whose balance of power shifts imperceptibly and almost impossibly. A ship full of uber wealthies including a ‘shit’ seller with a voluptuous arm candy, a charming old British couple who have been ‘upholding democracy’ for decades, a disabled lady who cannot speak beyond one phrase, a captain who almost isn’t, a bunch of almost invisible have-not’s who form the underbelly of the luxury liner, and more come under Östlund’s derisory pen and unforgiving gaze. 

Like roller coasters, ToS is not for the faint of heart, or faint of stomach for that matter. I found myself flinching many times. Then again, I find myself ruminating on the film a lot more than I thought I would. 

For me, the saddest part of revisiting Triangle of Sadness is the death of Charlbi Dean Kriek in August 2022. Her breakthrough performance in this film was slated to bring immense success. Peter Bradshaw wrote for The Guardian, and I quote, “Charlbi Dean was a true star-in-the-making. Her loss is a huge one.”


Harris Dickinson – Karl

Charlbi Dean Kriek – Yaya 

Dolly De Leon – Abigail

Woody Harrelson – Captain 

Zlatko Buric – Dimitry

Vicki Berlin – Paula 

IMDb: 7.4/10

My rating: 8/10

Copyright © Taraa Vermaa Senguptaa, March 2023

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