Reviews

A loving, attentive pastiche to a specific time and place. It's completely uninterested in anything beyond being an intimate character study, which won't be enough for those who are looking for more bells and whistles.

If you're looking for masters in their respective crafts to play in a sandbox for about two hours, you'll find a lot to enjoy with this one.

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• JUSTICE FOR JENNY AND DOMINIC. So you're just gonna off the only two pure souls on this island? Rude.

• This film does for cozy navy cable-knit sweaters that "Knives Out" and Chris Evans did for cozy, cream cable-knit sweaters, i.e. I WANT.

• Jesus Christ Colm, go to therapy already.

Rocketing out of nowhere to become one of my top films of the year, "Triangle of Sadness" was so fun in theaters with a crowd. My Alamo Drafthouse screening had a blast, cheering our heroes on like we were taping a Jerry Springer episode.

I know because I loved the film so much that this is going to be a tough sell for general audiences. As for the handful of critics drinking haterade (cough, cough: The Guardian), they're squarely in the crosshairs of who Östlund is aiming at with his unsparing critique of elites and their hypocrisies under capitalism.

The ending will surely polarize folks. Abigail is morally and societally wrong for her final decision-her justification for doing so being a lapse of sanity at the prospect of losing whatever semblance of power and status she gained on the island. For Abigail, her dilemma is existential. Directing violence towards "hot, innocent women"-"justified" or not-is something we instinctively recoil at. There will be those who will wish for a better fate for Yaya.

Those at the top of the capitalistic food chain will not and have not thought twice about who they're bulldozing to maintain their social positions when the roles are reversed. Yaya would have killed Abigail if she knew that Abigail was her last barrier to reaching that elevator. The island went from rule of law to law of the jungle: apex predator wins.

Direction My favorite movies leave production details that reward repeat viewings (e.g. "Parasite," "Hereditary," "Midsommar," "Psycho," etc.) and Östlund's latest black comedy had this in spades. Every inch of his frames tell a little bit of the story, from the choice of books in the background ("Utopia for Realists"), to subtle payoffs in costuming (Abigail nonchalantly wearing the Rolex and Patek Philippe right after the scene she's bribed with them), to the blocking of his characters in the fore and background. Östlund's mastery over showing and not telling is god-tier.

Performances Harris Dickinson seemed like a capable, innocuous-enough actor in the past films I've seen him in (e.g. "See How They Run," "Where the Crawdads Sing," and "The King's Man"), but he's a showstopper here. The physical comedy he taps into through his body language and expressions-on top of his choices in line delivery-make this a breakout lead performance. The subtle choices he made when "shopping" for the engagement ring had me DYING.

Carl is a total smoke show but still neurotic and awkward and insecure in his relationships. I was impressed at the depth Dickinson found beyond being just a hot, vacant bag of rocks. Carl was an excellent anchor for the first act. The Uber from dinner (one long take if I remember correctly) to Carl's elevator monologue instantly sold me on the movie being right in my wheelhouse. That scene earned Dickinson an Oscar nomination if there's any justice in the world.

I've never seen Dolly de Leon in anything, but holy cow: she grabbed that third act by the neck and completely ate it up. "One for you, one for me." // "Who am I?" If she doesn't get an Oscar nomination this year, we riot.

Despite the drama, this is mostly good and-daresay-even great in stretches. Overall it's competently acted (Harry is a lowlight but not egregious) and well-directed (aside from the failure to keep drama from bleeding into the public preconceptions of the project).

DP Matthew Libatique remains brilliant. The dilating eye shot is a signature for anyone who's seen 'Requiem for a Dream.'

The Twilight Zone / Black Mirror-esque weird / unsettling happenings don't build on one another as well as I would have liked, but the twist/reveal takes proceedings from 0 to 100 in a satisfying way.

Tl;dr this is 'Severance' in Palm Springs and Bunny is Wanda Maximoff if she got her way, lol.

'Honk for Jesus' really needed 'Righteous Gemstones'-type marketing, making it clear that the film was skewering the hypocrisy of churches that peach 'prosperity gospel.' I'm seeing way too many instances of devout church folk walking into this expecting one thing and getting the exact opposite.

Coming in with zero expectations, I thought this film was a lot of fun. Regina Hall eats up every moment she was given and Sterling K. Brown did an excellent job portraying the menace, repression, and desperation hiding behind Pastor Childs' million-dollar smile and Prada suits.

I loved how the audience isn't spoon-fed the core details of Pastor Childs' scandal-we were left to piece the details behind the disintegration of Lee-Curtis' and Trinity's marriage as we witnessed their increasing moments of disconnect. Regina Hall playing women stuck in relationships with closet-cases could be a genre unto itself at this point and I'm here for it, lol.

What a thoroughly unlikeable movie.

The driving narrative motivation (petty revenge for a perceived slight) is asinine; most characters are monsters; and the setting is a period that is so corny and tired.

The one totally innocent soul nonsensically falls for-dEsPiTe hEr fLawS-the 19th-century Regina George who kicks off our tale of woe. The title character vacillates between an uppity villain who deserves a life with the scorned mean girl gunning for his humiliation and an unconvincing 'victim' that we're supposed to pity for being targeted? Just...ew.

What a waste of an interestingly-cast ensemble. They deserved a better story to play with.