Triangle of Sadness: Going Just a Little Beyond Gilligan’s Island

Plot via IMDB:

In Ruben Östlund’s wickedly funny Palme d’Or winner, social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival.—Official Synopsis

Triangle of Sadness is really an upscale intellectual version of Gilligan’s Island. Add class satire, some gross out vomit scenes, some communism vs capitalism arguments and not so subtle plotting that emphasizes and reverses this nexus and you’ll come pretty close to what director Ruben Ostlund has made here.

If you like vomit sequences, the middle section of Triangle of Sadness features what will become the ultimate statement of gross out for generations to come. It’s made even more upchucking memorable with tons of overflowing toilets adding to the merriment. It’s, pun intended, the shit-iest cinematic metaphor ever.

Eventually, everyone gets stranded on a supposedly uncharted desert island where the Mary Anne, Ginger, the Professor and millionaire couplings get sorted out, contextualized, and satirized in a nature vs power display. It’s not as fun as barfing but it is interesting enough.

I’ll take Gilligan’s Island over Lina Wertmuller’s Swept Away any day. Obviously, Triangle of Sadness many Academy Award nominations agree squarely with the Hollywood pseudo low brow intellectual crowd.