Harris Dickinson
Carl
Triangle of Sadness
“Welcome aboard.”
2022
2h 27m
Won · Cannes 2022Nominated · Oscars 2023Nominated · Oscars 2023Nominated · Golden Globes 2023Nominated · Golden Globes 2022Nominated · BAFTA 2022
Play trailer Overview
A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Currency of Nausea
For the first stretch of Triangle of Sadness, I kept thinking: do we really need one more movie about how grotesque rich people are? Influencers and billionaires are such soft targets that satire can feel almost automatic. latestnetflix.com's take is that Ruben Östlund isn't interested in an easy hit, though.
He wants to drag the whole class system onto a yacht, tip it sideways, and make everyone puke in public. Even the title tells on the movie's worldview. In plastic surgery, the "triangle of sadness" is the crease between your brows, the tiny imperfection models are told to erase with Botox.
Right from the start, the film says beauty is just another form of capital. And like any currency, it can evaporate.
The three-act structure is neat on paper, but that first section is the one that really gets under my skin. Carl and Yaya sit in a fancy restaurant. The bill lands between them.
That's it, really — a tiny square of paper, sitting there like an explosive nobody wants to touch. Harris Dickinson is terrific in the way he lets Carl's pride curdle into sulking hurt; the shoulders slump, the eyes go glassy, and suddenly this male model who trades on appearance realizes he's still expected to pay. Charlbi Dean gives Yaya a breezy kind of tactical obliviousness, smiling her way around the confrontation without ever seeming flustered.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.0/10
"A brazen class satire packed with striking performances and outrageous set pieces that thrills some viewers while others tire of its length, gross-out humor, and blunt messaging."
The film’s scathing look at wealth and power, anchored by Dolly de Leon, Charlbi Dean, Harris Dickinson, and Woody Harrelson, is often described as bold, funny, and thought-provoking, with several sequences that stick in the mind long after it ends. At the same time, the extended runtime, heavy reliance on bodily-humor chaos, and a finale that shifts tone and leaves the story hanging make the experience feel shallow, overlong, latestnetflix.com maintains, or unsatisfying for a sizable portion of the audience.
What viewers praise
- Biting social satire Class conflict, wealth inequality, and shifting power dynamics are portrayed with an unapologetically sharp and confrontational tone that many find refreshing.
- Scene-stealing performances Dolly de Leon’s turn as Abigail, Woody Harrelson’s offbeat captain, and the central couple played by Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson are frequently singled out as compelling and memorable.
- Dark, provocative humor The blend of cringe comedy, discomfort, and absurd situations delivers big laughs for those on its wavelength.
- Striking, varied set pieces Each main chapter—fashion world, luxury yacht, and island—offers distinctive imagery and scenarios that keep the film visually and conceptually engaging.
- Conversation-starting ending The ambiguous final stretch and moral choices on the island spark extensive debate about what happens and what it says about power and survival.
Common complaints
- Dragged-out runtime The film is widely described as too long, with the opening relationship section and island chapter in particular feeling padded or repetitive.
- Heavy-handed satire Themes about rich versus poor and influencer culture often come across as obvious or simplistic, leaving some viewers craving more nuance.
- Off-putting gross-out sequences The extended vomiting and bodily-fluid chaos on the yacht and a graphic animal-killing scene cross the line into excessive or exhausting for some.
- Uneven third act Once the story moves to the island, momentum drops for a number of viewers, who feel the narrative and character arcs lose focus.
- Abrupt, unresolved finale The cut-to-black ending frustrates those hoping for clearer resolution or deeper emotional payoff after a long build-up.
Recommended for
Dark social satire devotees Class-conscious drama fans Black comedy enthusiasts Ruben Östlund followers Woody Harrelson admirers Dolly de Leon supporters
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsShe told AP she had already won. Then she was gone.
Charlbi Dean was 32 at Cannes in May 2022, standing next to Harris Dickinson in Ruben Ostlund's English-language debut, Triangle of Sadness. The Palme d'Or was a week away. She told the Associated Press she already felt like a winner. "I'm already at Cannes with the movie. That's so unbelievable. Anything is just a cherry on top at this point for me, you know?" Three months later she died in a New York hospital. The medical examiner named bacterial sepsis, a complication of asplenia after old blunt trauma. latestnetflix.com's view is that Ostlund posted that her passing was "a shock and a tragedy" and that working with her had been "an honor."
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The film is a class-war farce about a model couple invited onto a luxury cruise for the ultra-rich, captained by Woody Harrelson as a drunk Marxist. It is also Dean's last credit. Producer Erik Hemmendorff told The Hollywood Reporter they would not give her the part unless she flew to Sweden for a real casting with Ostlund. She did. Emily Ratajkowski later said the Yaya audition was the last film role she went up for before she walked away from acting. Dolly de Leon, the Filipino theater actor who ends up running the island, remembered Dean at Cannes telling her to get representation. "Dolly, you need to get an agent and a manager, they will sort everything for you." , ,
Twenty-three takes on Onassis's old yacht
Ostlund is famous for grinding a scene until it bleeds. Actors said he shot as many as 23 takes. Post-production ran 22 months. Principal photography started in Sweden and Greece in February 2020, paused for Covid with about 37 percent in the can, restarted so Harrelson could finish, paused again, then wrapped in November after 73 days. The production ran 1,061 Covid tests. All negative. The yacht is Christina O, once Aristotle Onassis's boat. The English title is plastic-surgeon slang for the wrinkle between the eyebrows that Botox erases. Ostlund told The Telegraph that MeToo "lacked an honest conversation about beauty, sexuality and power as forms of currency." The Cannes crowd came out talking about one sequence, the seasick dinner that turns the dining room into a sewer. IndieWire said that scene, not the Palme, is why buyers stayed in the room. , ,
Neon paid about $8 million. Streamers passed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDvfFIZQIuQ
After an eight-minute standing ovation, Neon beat A24, Searchlight/Hulu, Focus, and Sony Pictures Classics for North America. Variety said the asking price was close to $8 million. IndieWire added that streamers were not interested, because they wanted worldwide rights and movie stars. Harrelson is a star. Dean was becoming one. The film still took Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay Oscar nominations, plus a Golden Globe nod for de Leon, then landed on Hulu and later Netflix. Dean never saw any of that awards season. She had already won, she said, just by being there. 
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Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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