Part 1: Carl & Yaya Carl, amodel, attends an uncomfortable and demeaning casting call with other male models. Carl is dating Yaya, a fellow model andinfluencer, and resents her for expecting him to pay for meals even though she earns far more than he does. They bicker about money and gender roles. Yaya admits that she is in a relationship with Carl for the engagement it earns them on social media, and that she seeks to become atrophy wife, but Carl declares that she will come to love him.
Part 2: The Yacht Carl and Yaya are invited on a luxury cruise aboard a superyacht in exchange for its social media promotion.
Among the guests are the Russian oligarch Dimitry and his wife Vera; the elderly couple Clementine and Winston, who have made their fortune manufacturing grenades and other weapons; Therese, a wheelchair user only capable of speaking a single phrase in German (in den Wolken, i.e. "in the clouds") following a stroke; and Jarmo, a lonely tech millionaire who flirts with Yaya, who uses her sexual appeal to influence him despite this making Carl upset.
The guests luxuriate on the yacht, oblivious to the crew working to meet their every need and ridiculous whim. The head of staff, Paula, demands they obey the guests' absurd requests, including having every crew member swim in the sea. The kitchen crew is ordered to swim as well, despite the chef warning that the food will go bad. Carl complains to Paula about a crew member whom Yaya finds attractive, inadvertently getting the man fired. Meanwhile, the yacht's captain, Thomas Smith, spends his time drunk in his cabin.
Despite a raging storm, the staff carries on with holding afine dining dinner the guests expect. The guests become violently ill with a combination of food poisoning and seasickness due to the food being left out earlier in the day and the tumultuous storm. The drunken Thomas and Dimitry debate in favor ofcommunism andcapitalism, respectively, which is broadcast over the intercom. The guests spend the evening puking while wearing their life jackets, creating mess and flooding the sewage system. While the menial staff get to work cleaning things up, the guest staff sabotage the entire ship's power in an attempt to cut the captain's intercom to put on a cheerful face and stop him from upsetting the guests.
When morning arrives, pirates attack, killing Clementine and Winston with one of their own grenades and sinking the yacht.
Part 3: The Island A small group of survivors consisting of guests Carl, Yaya, Dimitry, Therese, and Jarmo, ship's head of guest staff Paula, ship's mechanic Nelson (whom Dimitry accuses of being a pirate), and Toilet Manager Abigail manage to escape to an island. At first, Paula continues to order Abigail to serve the useless cruise guests. When it becomes clear that Abigail is the only one with survival skills, such as catching fish and starting a fire, the traditional class system is upended.
Abigail rises in power and the others must curry her favor with gifts and labor. Paula quickly shifts allegiance to Abigail. Abigail gains her own private shelter inside a lifeboat and lures Carl into a sexual relationship by giving him food in exchange for sexual favors. Yaya grows resentful at the role reversal and is disoriented that her own lack of sexual power in the situation on the island means she has zero means of influence. The wealthy guests remain fairly nonchalant and carry on like normal, creating games and making art. Jarmo kills a wild donkey for food by smashing it with a rock, which Dimitry, Nelson and the others celebrate with a primitive dinner party.
When Yaya decides to hike to the other side of the island, Abigail volunteers to go with her. Back at the camp, Therese encounters a beach vendor hawking fake luxury goods, but is unable to communicate her situation to the man as he is only interested in selling to her. Yaya and Abigail discover a lift built into the rocks and realize they have been stranded near a luxury resort. Yaya celebrates finding the lift, but Abigail prepares to attack Yaya with a rock to prevent her from telling the others and forcing Abigail to return to a menial, powerless role back in society. The camera cuts away to an injured Carl frantically running through the jungle.
Triangle of Sadness was announced by directorRuben Östlund in June 2017, after his filmThe Square won thePalme d'Or at the70th Cannes Film Festival the previous month. He said the film was to be calledTriangle of Sadness, a "wild" satire set against the world of fashion and the uber-rich, with "appearance as capital" and "beauty as currency" as the underlying themes.[8] The English title refers to a term used by plastic surgeons for theworrywrinkle that forms between the eyebrows, which can be removed withbotox.[9][10]
Research for some parts of the script took place in May 2018. Casting took place from August to November 2018 in Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles and Gothenburg,[11] and continued in Moscow in March 2019. Location scouting began in January 2019 and lasted intermittently until October 2019. Östlund fine-tuned the last details ofpre-production from November 2019 to the first half of February 2020.
In February 2020, it was reported thatTriangle of Sadness would beginprincipal photography on 19 February in Sweden and Greece, with a 70-day shoot, and that the cast would includeHarris Dickinson,Charlbi Dean andWoody Harrelson.[12] About 120 actors were considered for the role that Dickinson landed, andEmily Ratajkowski was among the actresses who auditioned for Dean's role.[13] On 26 March, production paused due to theCOVID-19 pandemic with about 37% of shooting completed.[14] Editing started during the firstCOVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Production resumed on 27 June in Sweden, allowing Harrelson to finish his scenes, but was halted again on 3 July.[15]
Production resumed on 18 September on location at Chiliadou Beach,Euboea, Greece, for the last 38 days. Filmingwrapped on 13 November 2020, concluding a 73-day shoot. Östlund reported that the production carried out 1,061 COVID-19 tests throughout filming and all were negative.[4] Filming also took place on other Greek islands, on the stages ofFilm i Väst inTrollhättan, Sweden, and in the Mediterranean Sea on theChristina O, the yacht formerly owned byAristotle Onassis.[16]Post-production lasted 22 months. According to the actors, Östlund shot as many as 23 takes for each scene.[17]
OnVOD, it ranked number 2 oniTunes Movies following the Oscar nomination announcements on 24 January 2023.[24] By 9 March 2023, according toSamba TV, it had been streamed onHulu in 250,000 households in the United States since the announcements, withJustWatch also reporting it to be, by 21 February, the second most-streamed Best Picture nominee in Canada, behindThe Fabelmans.[25][26]
Triangle of Sadness grossed $4.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $32.9 million.[5][6] It sold over 2 million tickets in Europe.[28]
In the United States,Triangle of Sadness opened in 10 locations in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to a debut of $210,074, for a per theatre average of $21,007.[29] In its second weekend, it grossed $657,051 on 31 screens.[30] In its third weekend, it grossed $600,000 on 280 screens, finishing tenth at the box office.[31] In its fourth weekend, it grossed $548,999 on 610 screens, dropping out of the box office top ten.[32]
Dolly de Leon's performance garnered critical acclaim.
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 71% of 280 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Triangle of Sadness lacks the sharp edges of Östlund's earlier work, but this blackly humorous swipe at the obscenely affluent has its own rewards."[33]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[34]
Alysha Prasad of One Room With A View called it "Utterly unhinged in the best way possible, guaranteed to elicit enough laughter to make your stomach ache, while also leaving you with plenty to think about afterwards."[35] David Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan praised the ensemble cast as "completely compelling, even if some of the characters are unsavory."[36] Aaron Neuwirth of We Live Entertainment described it as containing "what’s likely the grossest set piece I’ve seen in a movie awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival."[37] Gabi Zeitsman of Channel 24 (South Africa) commented, "if you lovedWhite Lotus and satire aimed at the beautiful and rich, this is a definite must-watch. The fact that it won the Palme d'Or is in itself almost satirical..."[38] "Don't go in expecting art-house intellectualism," wroteKyle Smith of theWall Street Journal, "The movie is as loaded with fun as it is with social implications."[39] Paul Byrnes of theSydney Morning Herald commented, "For Östlund, subtlety is overrated. Triangle of Sadness shows us why he has a point. It’s a spectacular demolition of modern life, a disruptor movie full of ideas and nuance, as violent in its way as a Pieter Bruegel painting."[40]Kevin Maher ofThe Times detected more nuance in the film, however, stating: "Yes, the metaphor can seem very on-the-nose: the super rich, in this economic climate especially, are obscene and repulsive! But it's a film of great subtlety (really) and benefits from multiple viewings."[41]
Richard Brody, in a critical review forThe New Yorker, describedTriangle of Sadness as "a movie of targeted demagogy that pitches its facile political stances to the preconceptions of theart-house audience; far from deepening those ideas or challenging those assumptions, it flatters the like-minded viewership while swaggering with the filmmaker’s presumption of freethinking, subversive audacity." Brody described Östlund's direction as "precise but stiff" and criticised the film's emphasis on social commentary: "[Östlund's] keen observations are submerged in his efforts at social criticism and political philosophy." However, Brody commended the cast performances—particularly Dean's, of which he wrote: "If nothing else, the movie would have assured her stardom; there’s no telling how many characters and films her death foreclosed before their conception."[42]
Armond White, in a critical review forNational Review, talks about the substitution of concepts inTriangle of Sadness: "Östlund extends his Euro-Marxism into a second-rate allegory about third-world exploitation: An insulting subplot features the ship's Filipino toilet manager (Dolly De Leon) turning the tables on the rich, feckless whites, yet emulating their decadence (Parasite, Part II). Östlund bungles the political, spiritual, and moral lessons of such classics about chaos as Luis Buñuel'sExterminating Angel, Antonioni'sL'Avventura, and Godard'sWeekend." White sums up his review calling Östlund "just a misanthrope and a fraud."[43]
FilmmakerEdgar Wright praised the film, saying that it "has plenty to say about the obscene gap in the living wage but is also smart and witty entertainment, brilliantly structured, perfectly performed and masterfully directed to create a purely theatrical experience from start to end."[44]
In 2023,MovieWeb ranked it number 10 on its list of "20 Movies That Require Your Full Attention From Start to Finish," writing "If you are a fan of movies that tell its story through multiple parts or take a drastic turn in direction but also include a wicked sense of humor, thenTriangle of Sadness is for you ... This film has such an unpredictable, disgusting, over-the-top hilarious change in direction that if you stop paying attention for even a second, you will probably question if the same movie is still playing."[45]
In 2025, filmmakerSean Baker and actressNaomi Ackie both cited the film as among their favourites of the 21st century.[46]
Andreas Franck, Bent Holm, Gustav Landbecker, Johannes Dekko, Claes Lundberg, Benny Persson, Daniel Lindvik, Alexander Wunsch, Erik Watland, Ulf Olausson
^Curzon Film purchased UK and Ireland distribution rights to the film at the Cannes Film Festival, but sold them to Lionsgate prior to the film's release. Curzon retained a certain stake in the film, had rights to the film's profits and marketed the film together with Lionsgate.[1]
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