Triangle of Sadness         3 ½ stars

If you go to see Ruben Ostlund’s new comedy Triangle of Sadness be ready for a series of excrement related scenes and that means literally. This movie by the maker of Force Majeure and The Square takes aim at the superrich and the world of high fashion and does some serious well-deserved damage. In the early scenes we meet Carl and Yaya (Charlbi Dean who passed away only a couple of months ago), a young celebrity couple who are trying to define their relationship over the payment of the dinner check. Carl sees himself as a feminist while Yaya seems to want a traditional relationship despite the fact that she makes more money than Carl. The pair then receive a cruise on a luxury yacht as a gift where the action among the superrich plays out. We meet several of mega-millionaires and get a dose of how they treat the ship’s crew and see how they can do damage to the common working people without even realizing the pain they cause. The wealthy passengers include a British couple in the arms manufacturing business, a tech genius and a Russian oligarch who sells fertilizer (or shit as he puts it). We also get a dose of the different sociological classes among the crew from the always cheerful servers down to the toilet cleaners. Then there is the captain, Thomas Smith (Woody Harrelson) who is more interested in entertaining the guests and drinking than he is in running the ship. The movie’s centerpiece (a literal shitshow) is the Captain’s Dinner which takes place in the dining hall where gourmet meals are served to the guests. Only it is happening in the middle of a violent storm. This is where seasickness takes over among the passengers resulting in the misery brought on by projectile vomit and overflowing toilets. Through all this the American captain who sees himself as a Marxist and the Russian fertilizer capitalist get into a drunken duel quoting well known figures over the struggle between capitalism and socialism. (You see the irony?) The point of the movie really hits the audience over the head as it skewers the superrich no matter what economic system it is under which they acquired their wealth. Eventually the movie shows that there are situations where having great wealth does not work to the characters’ advantage. Having the skillset of a common laborer can be very valuable, though even that can be abused. Don’t look for much in the way of plot in this movie. In that respect it is similar to Ostlund’s The Square from 2017 which also concerned the behavior of the ultrarich. While I completely approve of the subject matter of the film, it did tend to get repetitive and at two and a half hours, it was too drawn out. Even so, look for it to be talked about when the awards season comes to us.