Apollo's Belt of Sadness

Any trailer that opens with Harris Dickinson strutting around topless is a fine trailer by me -- and here I was already excited about Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness, just by virtue of, you know, Ruben Östlund. If you're all "Ru-who Ost-huh?" -- Ruben Östlund is the Swedish nasty-man director of The Square and Force Majuere, who mercilessly skewers everybody in his sights. Some people love him for it, some people find him obvious and insipid -- I happen to be in the former camp, although I have sympathy for those in the latter. I get their complaints. I just think his films are so visually playful and laugh-out-loud funny that whatever broadness there might be the the topics he tackles doesn't really bother me. 

His compositions are just always so interesting to the eye, ya know? And not in an empty style-over-substance way -- the style really informs the substance. For me, anyway. And it's not like I can pretend I'm exactly a beleaguered lone defender here -- this here movie won the fucking Palme d'Or this year for Christ's sake. The Man is doing fine! He doesn't need me to defend him. Anyway Triangle is about two models, played by Dickinson and Charlbi Dean, who get invited to prance about on a wealthy person's yacht...

... (said wealthy person is played Woody Harrelson), when a Gilligan-adjacent disaster strikes and they all find themselves stranded on a desert island. So it seems he's got the ultra-rich and Influencer Culture in his sights, which yeah -- these are the great targets of our moment. He's not exactly straining for this one. But I'll watch the shit out of it anyway, and don't be surprised if it winds up in my Top 10 of the year. We vibe too hard and I'll be truly surprised otherwise. Here's that trailer:

Triangle of Sadness is out on October 8th!