Parasite on the high seas. That’s how I would describe the multi-Oscar nominated movie, Triangle of Sadness. Personally I have my differences with Parasite and have always felt that it was almost ironically hailed and hyped by the very same crowd it tried to critique. But though it has been a festival circuit favorite, the western media hasn’t been too kind to Triangle of Sadness. The movie interestingly has more than just themes and characters in common with some of the other critic’s favorites of the year namely The Menu and Glass Onion. Must be a post-covid era thing. It’s also worth noting that while Glass Onion slipped through and Triangle of Sadness turned out a darling of the Academy from the nominations at least, The Menu received a total snub. Apparently it was a bit too hard to digest or maybe the menu was already served, in terms of themes by the other films.

The director does try too many things in the movie that’s more than two hours long and literally loses the plot literally in the “third act”, there’s only so much philosophy a viewer can deal with, even the festival circuit aficionados. Ruben Östlund takes aim at everything from the fashion industry to the military industrial complex to tech startups to social hierarchies and does throw in some interesting scenes in the process, the best ones being the exchanges between the drunk socialist-Marxist American captain and the capitalist Russian billionaire and then the Captain’s dinner. Before it literally switched to toilet humor, the dinner scene definitely had some of the funniest moments in modern Cinema, if you ask me. With the number of themes and issues the director tries to address in this film the title of the other Oscar contender, Everything Everywhere All at Once would suit this film just fine too.