5 Movies like Triangle of Sadness: Triangle of Sadness gives us a flavor of catastrophe as a group of rich snobs would experience it. It gently rolls us into the lives of two young models, Yaya (played by Charlbi Dean) and Carl (played by Harris Dickinson); we see their relationship centered around money and affordability. Soon, the two are aboard a luxurious yacht with guests from across the world, each flaunting their quirks and economic prowess. However, all their wealth cannot counter the natural and man-made disasters that await them on the ride of their life. Of all the guests aboard this sprawling yacht, few survive a tumultuous night at sea and end up stranded on a nearby deserted island where they must provide for themselves to survive. Is the island completely deserted with no hope of being rescued from their fate?
Director Ruben Östlund’s film is a richly crafted satirical drama that echoes the spirit of ‘Eat the Rich’, the most widely recognized phrase in pop culture that seeks to call out the rich capitalists for their money and quirks. However, it does much more than just expose the fetishes of the rich; it simultaneously comments on the changing token of currency that governs human interactions in this wildly capitalist world. It captures the misery of being seasick while presenting cartoonish caricatures of millionaires. This riotous comedy went on to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, and Östlund will be present on the jury at Cannes this year.
Triangle of Sadness is currently playing in theatres worldwide and has been nominated in the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards this year. If you have already laughed out loud at the presentation of the rich in this movie, we have curated five movies like Triangle of Sadness to further satisfy your guilty pleasure of watching the rich trip on their own choices. These movies promise extravagance and biting satire with just the right hint of black comedy.
5. Lord of the Flies (1990)
This is a survival drama directed by Harry Hook based on a novel by the same name written by William Golding. It follows the story of 24 military school boys whose aircraft accidentally ditches near an uninhabited island in the Pacific ocean. Their pilot, Captain Benson (played by Michael Greene), is injured and delirious, leaving all the young boys to brave the wilderness alone. The rest of the movie follows the cadets, especially Simon (played by James Badge Dale), Piggy (played by Danuel Pipoly), Ralph (played by Balthazar Getty), and Jack (played by Chris Furrh), as they struggle to make the most of their skillset and survive till some help arrives. In the process, they kill a wild pig, drink water from a rivulet, blow into conch shells, make offerings to “monsters,” etc. It is an amusing story of survival against all odds.
Like Triangle of Sadness, this movie lodges the survivors of a plane crash on a barren island with the exception that in the former, it is a shipwreck and ganged attack that forces the remaining survivors to take refuge on an island. The entire third section of the film resonates closely with this movie, focusing on the survival strategies adopted. It is how the behavior patterns change when faced with such a calamity that is observed in both these movies, graced by anticlimactic endings in their own ways.
4. The Square (2017)
Written and directed by Ruben Östlund, this film follows the story of Stockholm’s X-Royal Museum’s chief art curator, Christian (played by Claes Bang), who is intent on highlighting the new and doing away with the old in this museum. To that effect, a plinth is replaced by a small square, representing a safe space, mutual trust, and equal rights. However, his personal and professional lives are thrown into a crisis in the movie as he finds himself robbed of his wallet, cufflinks, and phone and swooning under the unlikely effects of a one-night stand with an American journalist, Anne (played by Elizabeth Moss). He must deal with the consequences that arise as a result of his trying to retrieve the belongings. Östlund’s movie contemplates contemporary life and lifestyles throughout this film while constantly juxtaposing the actions of the protagonist against the square set up in the museum.
Akin to Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, The Square also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2017. The former was announced as the next project Östlund would be taking up after he had won the Palme d’Or that year. Both films dangerously flirt with chaos from the moment they set out to tell their respective stories. They are satirical in how they observe the decadence of the rich and the art snobs, reflecting that they are unaware of the bitter truths of reality. Both films are disquieting in their own ways and bring out a hint of over-indulgence on the part of the director leading to a lack of structural congruity.
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3. Parasite (2019)
Directed by Bong Joon-ho, this Korean black comedy film is believed to be one of the first films to have inaugurated the tradition of “Eat the Rich” films in popular culture. It accurately represented the scathing socio-economic disparity in Korea by portraying the Kim family and the Park family. The former lives in a semi-basement flat in Seoul, and each of the members pose as a professional to get hired by the Park Family as helps around the house, beginning with Kim Ki-woo (played by Choi Woo-Shik), who gets hired as an English teacher for the Parks’ daughter, Da-hye. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the Kim family is feasting on the riches of the Park family (like parasites) to sustain until their presence starts to come under threat. This is a “stairway movie” said to bring out the spirit of late-stage capitalism as it exists in contemporary Korean society.
Like Triangle of Sadness, this movie thrives on the slow but steady unfurling of chaos in the lives of the ultra-rich. Both movies care to give us some context surrounding the characters they are putting on display and give us enough reason to sneer at the habits of the rich. Both films have also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for their respective display of the disparity in current economic structures and manifesting the fall of the rich at the slightest rumble of the ground beneath their feet.
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2. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Written and directed by Rian Johnson, this is a standalone sequel to Knives Out (2019). During the pandemic, Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton) invites a select few to his mansion on a private island in Greece. Before the trip begins, everyone realizes that the world-famous detective, Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), is also accompanying them. Hostilities and the plush display of wealth are put on display from the moment these guests arrive on the island, including a cold relationship between Miles and his ex-business partner and the Mona Lisa which he has loaned out from the Louvre. They are going to play a murder mystery game until a real murder takes place, putting everyone’s lives at risk. Who is the killer? Johnson’s film is wildly entertaining and bemuses you with a star cast and cameos.
As far as movies like Triangle of Sadness are concerned, Glass Onion takes us for a ride with the uber-rich on a vacation that will soon catapult into a disaster. The rich are presented as caricature capitalists who find their worlds tumbling like a house of cards as soon as they are struck with minor inconvenience, be it Mother Nature’s wrath or a sneaky lil’ detective. Both of the films focus on the chaos that turns the tables for the riches, driving home the “Eat the Rich” idea.
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1. The Menu (2022)
Directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, the film follows a group of rich people who travel by boat to an exclusive restaurant on a private island which is operated by the celebrity chef Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes). Once seated, dinner is served through a series of courses picked by the chef, each with its own introductory monologue and story. As the courses progress, the guests start realizing that the chef is playing at something brutal and sinister here; he is playing with the guests’ lives and mocking them through his art. Only Margot Mills (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), a last-moment date for the foodie Tyler Ledford (played by Nicholas Hoult), seems to be a misfit in the crowd. Does she survive the megalomania of the chef? Mylod’s film is thrilling and juicy, with a satire against the rich and their taste for finesse.
The Menu is a perfect Double Bill for Triangle of Sadness. Both movies feature a bunch of rich people who embark on a journey to satisfy their thirst for luxury and fine dining. The gut-wrenching scenes following the sea-sickness of the guests aboard the yacht in Triangle of Sadness are reminiscent of the shocking revelations that the guests undergo while progressing through each of the courses of their meals in The Menu. Like the mostly-drunk American Marxist captain of the yacht, the restaurant is run by a chef who has perfected his art of cooking only to cater to the tastes of the rich now. It is not astonishing that both these characters serve as sincere critiques of the rich they host. Like Triangle of Sadness, this movie also resonates with the “Eat the Rich” sentiment in the chaos that unfolds as the film progresses.
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