Review: ‘Superman’ (2025), starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult

July 8, 2025

by Carla Hay

Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet in “Superman” (Photo by Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Superman” (2025)

Directed by James Gunn

Culture Representation: Taking place on Earth and in outer space, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Superman” (based on DC Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Superman, who has an alter ego as journalist Clark Kent, battles against evil billionaire Lex Luthor.

Culture Audience: “Superman” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of superhero movies, DC Comics and action films that appealing interpretations on familiar characters.

Nicholas Hoult in “Superman” (Photo by Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. Pictures)

The Superman franchise has a new lease on life with this engaging reboot. This superhero movie (which has Kyrpto as a scene-stealing dog) can get overstuffed with subplots, but it’s got plenty of thrills and comedic moments. The 2025 version of “Superman” is a promising step in the right direction for a new era in movies based on DC Comics.

Written and directed by James Gunn (who became DC Studios’ co-chairman/CEO in 2022), “Superman” is not yet an origin story. The movie takes place during a time when Superman (played by David Corenswet) is already a known superhero in Metropolis, the large U.S. city where he lives and works. (“Superman” was actually filmed in Georgia, Ohio, and Norway.) In the movie, caped crusader Superman is vilified through media manipulation from ruthless billionaire Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult), who wants his weapon-making company LutherCorp to profit from a European country’s invasion of a Middle Eastern country.

The movie shows through flashbacks and conversations the necessary details of Superman’s backstory: He was born with the name Kal-El on the planet Krypton, and then sent to Earth by his parents when he was baby before his parents died when Krypton exploded. He landed in a field in Smallville, Kansas, where he was found and raised by two working-class farmers—Jonathan “Pa” Kent and Martha “Ma” Kent—who gave him the name Clark Kent. Superman has X-ray vision, the ability to fly, and superpowers in strength and speed. His biggest weakness is an element on is planet called Kryptonite, which has poison effects on Superman if he is exposed to Kryptonite.

Thirty years after baby Clark arrived as a baby on Earth, Clark (also played by Corenswet) is now a somewhat socially awkward journalist at the Daily Planet newspaper. It should come as no surprise that Clark has been the only journalist to be able to get exclusive interviews with the mysterious and elusive Superman. Only a few people on Earth know Clark’s true identity as Superman. One of them is his journalist co-worker Lois Lane (played by by Rachel Brosnahan), who is dating Clark, but the couple decided to keep this romance a secret.

The beginning of “Superman” shows a bloodied and wounded Superman collapsed in the icy snow somewhere in Antarctica. His loyal “superdog” Krypto (a medium-sized male white mixed-breed dog with some Labrador retriever genes) enthusiastically jumps on Superman. A caption in the beginning of the movie mentions that Superman is wounded because three hours ago, he lost his first battle. It’s later revealed what that battle was.

Suddenly, giant stalagmites rise up from the ground, revealing a secret hiding place called the Fortress of Solitude that can emerge and submerge from its underground station. Robots and drones work in this fortress, where Superman is rescued by robots that take him to get medical treatment on an operating table. After an evaluation, Superman is told he only has 83% of his strength, but he is determined to leave and finish the fight, which ends up causing $22 million in property damage and 20 people needing hospital treatment.

During this medical emergency, Superman’s biological parents—Jor-El (played by Bradley Cooper) and Lara (played by Angela Sarafayan)—are seen in hologram form and talking in their native Krypton language. (In this movie, it sounds a lot like Latin.) This hologram recording will play a significant role later in the story.

Someone who has tracked Superman to Antarctica is The Engineer, also known as Angela Spica (played by María Gabriela de Faría), Lex Luthor’s robot that has been manufactured to be a mercenary with superpowers. The Engineer has been given the task of finding and destroying Superman. But by the time she gets to Antarctica, Superman has already left. However, Angela does see signs of the underground fortress.

“Superman” has several different storylines that don’t always mesh well together in the movie. There’s the storyline about Superman wanting to stop the European country of Boravia from invading a more economically vulnerable Middle-Eastern country named Jarhanpur. Boravia’s president Vasil Glarkos (played by Zlatko Burić) is a disheveled brute who is a stereotypical dictator.

There’s also a storyline Superman’s testy and volatile relationship with the Justice Gang: a trio of superheroes sponsored by the corporation LordTech. The members of the Justice Gang are arrogant Green Lantern (played by Nathan Fillion), impulsive Hawkgirl (played by Isabella Merced) and uptight Mr. Terrific (played by Edi Gathegi), who all think that they are better superheroes than Superman. The Justice Gang members are among Superman’s critics who believe that Superman causes too much destruction of property during his heroic deeds.

There’s a storyline of about LuthorCorp inventing a superpowered robot called Ultraman that Lex touts as being stronger than Superman. Ultraman is operated by a team of tech engineers in a control room with video monitors. The engineers all work under the direction of Lex. Ultraman wears a metallic-looking mask. And as soon as you see Ultraman, you don’t have to know DC Comics lore t know there’s going to be a big fight between Ultraman and Superman.

And there’s a storyline about Clark’s relationship with Lois, which has hit a rough patch because Lois has doubts that she and Clark/Superman are a good match for each other. Lois (who describes herself as a former emo rebel) has struggles with the ethics of pursuing stories about Superman while knowing the secrets that she and Clark know. One of the best scenes in the movie between Clark and Lois is when she challenges him to let her interview him as Superman.

The other Daily Planet co-workers who get speaking lines are somewhat underdeveloped in the movie. Jimmy Olsen (played by Skyler Gisondo), a nerdy photojournalist, gets the most screen out of all of these Daily Planet side characters. Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White (played by Wendell Pierce) is somewhat generic. Gossip columnist Cat Grant (played by Mikaela Hoover) doesn’t do anything significant and will be remembered more for her cleavage-baring wardrobe than any lines of dialogue that she has in the movie.

Lex’s girlfriend is a giggly social media influencer named Eve Teschmacher (played by Sara Sampaio), who constantly films herself and takes selfies when she tags along as part of Lex’s globe-trotting entourage. Eve might seem like a shallow gold digger at first, but the movie eventually shows that she’s not as dimwitted as she first appears to be. There’s also a dark side of her relationship to Lex that’s briefly shown when he physically assaults her.

“Superman” has some sly jokes that poke fun at the DC Comics franchise. There’s a snide comment made about people not being able to figure out that Superman looks exactly like Clark without glasses. The Green Lantern character is more buffoonish than how he’s usually depicted on screen, with the intention that audiences are supposed to laugh at Green Lantern than laugh with him. Mr. Terrific has a few memorable deadpan jokes.

A character who appeared in 2021’s “The Suicide Squad” (also written and directed by Gunn) and a character from 2026’s “Supergirl” movie make a brief and hilarious cameos. And the Krypto character (who is also from the planet Krypton) is not as trained as the Krypto depicted in DC Comics or animation based on the comics. In this “Superman” movie, Krypto (who does not talk, as he does in other versions of Krypto) is a lovable but very unruly companion, which can be a help or a hindrance.

There’s a fairly good balance of the comedic and serious moments. One of the tearjerking scenes involves Superman’s visit to his adoptive parents Pa Kent (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) and Ma Kent (played by Neva Howell) when Superman has an identity crisis. Some viewers might think that the Justice Gang makes the movie too crowded with superheroes, while other viewers might think it’s important to show that not all of Superman’s opponents are villains.

Corenswet capably handles the movie’s lead duel role. Brosnahan also does a good job in portraying Lois as independent and a free thinker. But as far romantic sizzle goes, the Superman/Clark and Lois in this movie don’t generate a lot of heat. Hoult’s depiction of chief villain Lex is effective, but there are billionaire moguls in real life who are a lot more menacing. The truth is that the villains in “Superman” comics and movies just aren’t as interesting as the villains in “Batman” comics and movies.

“Superman” is not an overtly political film. However, the movie has pointed observations on how immigrants can be perceived and mistreated by those who are “natives.” Cultural supremacy is also inflicted by the story’s war villains. The cast members mostly have believable chemistry, whether they are allies or foes.

The movie’s visual effects live up to expectations. The movie’s mid-credits scene and end-credits scene do not tease what could happen in a sequel but are instead very short comedic scenes that aren’t crucial to the story. The 2025 version of “Superman” might not rank in the Top 5 as one of the all-time best superhero movies, but it’s certainly one of the best “Superman” movies that should please most fans.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Superman” in U.S. cinemas on July 11, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on July 8, 2025.

Review: ‘Wolfs,’ starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt

September 22, 2024

by Carla Hay

Brad Pitt and George Clooney in “Wolfs” (Photo courtesy of Apple Studios)

“Wolfs”

Directed by Jon Watts

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the comedy/drama film “Wolfs” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two fixers compete over who’s better at covering up the same scandal.

Culture Audience: “Wolfs” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt and movies about dirty dealings that aren’t as edgy and smart as they try to appear to be.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Austin Abrams in “Wolfs” (Photo courtesy of Apple Studios)

Wolfs is like a sheep in wolf’s clothing. It’s a boring and derivative dark comedy with George Clooney and Brad Pitt as rival fixers who repeatedly snipe, scowl, and smirk though a weak and bland plot about a scandalous hotel tryst and stolen heroin. The movie tries very hard to make these two fixers seem like dangerous underworld characters, but the performances of Clooney and Pitt fail to convince. These two actors just look like exactly what they are during this entire movie: overpaid, privileged movie stars just going through the motions while doing an unimaginative movie.

Written and directed by Jon Watts, “Wolfs” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. The movie, which takes place and was filmed on location in New York City, starts off as a potentially intriguing story. The opening scene shows the Manhattan skyline at night and then zooms in on an upscale hotel, where there’s the sound of glass breaking and a woman screaming in horror.

Viewers eventually find out what happened: A divorced, middle-aged district attorney named Margaret (played by Amy Ryan) was sexually hooking up with an unnamed guy (played by Austin Abrams), who’s young enough to be her son, in the hotel suite she had rented for the night. The guy, who is identified in the film’s end credits as Kid, is an undergraduate college student in his late teens or early 20s, who met Margaret at the hotel bar and accepted her invitation to “hang out” with her in her hotel suite.

While jumping up and down on the bed, Kid fell backward and right into a portable glass bar table. He’s bloody and presumed to be dead. In a panic, Margaret calls an unnamed “fixer” (played by Clooney), based on a referral. Margaret tells this fixer (who is identified as Margaret’s Man in the film’s end credits) that an unidentified man she knows gave her this phone number to call if she ever needed serious help.

Margaret’s Man is suspicious and asks her multiple times how she got his phone number. Margaret then seems to say the magic words because she tells this fixer: “He said to say there’s only one man in the city who can do what you do.” And just like a password unlocking a portal, the fixer changes his wary attitude and is convinced he can trust Margaret.

He hears what Margaret’s problem is and calmly assures her: “Everything is going to be fine.” He also orders her not to touch anything and wait for him to arrive at her hotel suite. When he arrives, he finds a nervous Margaret, who tells him that she can’t be connected to this scandal because she’s a district attorney. Margaret’s Man talks to her about establishing an alibi. They agree that she should go home and pretend she was with her teenage daughter all night.

Margaret denies that this unnamed young man in the suite is a prostitute. It’s used as a weird running joke in the movie, where various people assume that Kid is a sex worker and someone replies, “He’s not a prostitute.” This “joke,” which really is pointless and silly, gets tiresome very quickly. Because really: Even if this guy were a sex worker, the bigger problem is that he could be seriously injured or dead.

Just as Margaret’s Man fixer is about to start cleaning up and disposing of the body, another fixer shows up who is there for the same reason. This other fixer is identified in the end credits as Pam’s Man (played by Pitt) because he works for Pamela Dowd, the owner of this fairly new hotel. Margaret’s Man and Margaret find out that the hotel has a hidden video camera in the suite (which is totally illegal surveillance and one of the many stupid plot twists in the movie), and Pamela was alerted about this tryst gone wrong that was recorded by the hidden camera.

Pamela gets on the phone and tells Margaret’s Man that her fixer will take care of the problem because she’s going to do whatever is necessary to preserve the reputation of the hotel by covering up this scandal. Even though Margaret’s Man points out this illegal surveillance is a felony (and whatever was recorded probably wouldn’t be admissible evidence in court because the video is an illegal recording), Pamela ignores Margaret’s Man insistence that he should be the one to do the job. Pam’s Man immediately tries to make Margaret’s Man feel like an interloper, while Margaret’s Man tries to make Pam’s Man feel like an amateur

Margaret suggests that these two fixers work together. The two fixers reject the idea. They immediately despise each other in such a stereotypical way, if “Wolfs” hadn’t been such a hollow display of macho heterosexual posturing between these two fixers, then you could easily think that this “instant dislike” for each other might turn this movie into gay romantic comedy. And so begins a tedious back-and-forth egotistical battle between Margaret’s Man and Pam’s Man to prove who’s the better fixer.

Margaret has already gone home when Margaret’s Man and Pam’s Man find out there’s going to be more to this situation than cleaning up the room and getting rid of evidence, including Kid’s body. The two fixers find out that Kid has some bricks of heroin in his backpack. The fixers immediately deduce that whoever owns the heroin will come looking for it, so it’s better to find that person and give back the heroin.

It’s all just a silly excuse to prolong the movie with time-wasting detours. The trailer for “Wolfs” already reveals that Kid really isn’t dead. He becomes an annoying third wheel who gets caught between the bickering between these two smug fixers.

Margaret’s Man is supposed to be the ice-cold fixer, who thinks he’s superior because he has more experience and more underworld connections. Pam’s Man is supposed to be the wisecracking fixer, who thinks he’s superior because he’s in better physical shape and more skilled at new technology. It’s really just Clooney and Pitt do pale imitations of their characters in the “Ocean’s” movie franchise.

As for Abrams, because of his physical resemblance to Timothée Chalamet, he will get inevitable comparisons to Chalamet, who has more acting range. Abrams isn’t terrible in his “Wolfs” role, but he gives the type of performance that never lets people forget that he’s acting. “Wolfs” looks like a movie that Chalamet probably rejected, so the “Wolfs” filmmakers decided to go with a Chalamet look-alike.

The dialogue in “Wolfs” is often irritating and very artificial-sounding. Nowhere is this more evident than in a self-pitying monologue that Kid spews out in the middle of the movie. There are the typical scenes of bumbling criminals, gun fights and car chases that don’t do anything clever but just play out in a predictable manner.

Zlatko Buric has a small role as a Croatian gangster named Dimitri, who has a run-in with Margaret’s Man and Pam’s Man when the two fixers crash the wedding of Dimitri’s daughter. In an effort to hide from Dimitri, the two fixers try to blend in during a group circle dance. It looks as ridiculous as it sounds.

“Wolfs” has eye-catching cinematography but it can’t make up for such a lackluster story. Women in this shallow movie are background characters or disappear quickly. People who want to see Clooney and Pitt co-star in a more entertaining movie are better off watching “Ocean’s Eleven.”

Apple Studios released “Wolfs” in select U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. Apple TV+ will premiere the movie on September 27, 2024.

Review: ‘Triangle of Sadness,’ starring Charlbi Dean, Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson

October 8, 2022

by Carla Hay

Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson in “Triangle of Sadness” (Photo by Fredrik Wenzel/Neon)

“Triangle of Sadness”

Directed by Ruben Östlund

Some language in German and Russian with no subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly somewhere off the coast of Greece, the comedy/drama film “Triangle of Sadness” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one black person and one Filipina) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A dating couple, who are both young fashion models, must navigate conflicts over gender roles in their relationship, which is put to the test when they end up stranded on an island with other people from a luxury cruise yacht. 

Culture Audience: “Triangle of Sadness” will appeal primarily to people interested in a story that lampoons how youth, good looks, gender and wealth are used in social climbing and perceived power.

Arvin Kananian and Woody Harrelson in “Triangle of Sadness” (Photo by Fredrik Wenzel/Neon)

The darkly comedic “Triangle of Sadness” is an incisive satire of social class prejudices and gender-based power dynamics. The cast members’ skillful performances outweigh the movie’s flaws, such as a story that sometimes rambles and has a vague ending. “Triangle of Sadness” tells a memorable if uneven story about how constructs of power are frequently built around superficial qualities such as physical looks, youth and wealth, and how those constructs can radically change in life-or-death situations.

Written and directed by Ruben Östlund, “Triangle of Sadness” is a movie that is meant to make audiences laugh at uncomfortable truths and near-parodies of how people conduct themselves when they are in the presence of wealth and power—and what people are willing to do to have wealth and power. “Triangle of Sadness” had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in France, where it won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. The movie also made the rounds at other film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and the New York Film Festival.

“Triangle of Sadness” is told in three separate parts. “Part One: Carl and Yaya,” “Part Two: The Yacht” and “Part Three: The Island.” The first two parts of the movie are really just introductions to the various people who end up stranded on an island off of the coast of Greece, after a yachting disaster. The last part of the movie is the most intriguing part, but it’s also the part of the movie that will be the most frustrating to viewers.

“Part One: Carl and Yaya” shows the relationship of the London-based couple at the center of the story: Carl (played by Harris Dickinson) is British, in his mid-20s and is a former mechanic who now works as a fashion model. Yaya (played by Charlbi Dean) is originally from South Africa, in her early 30s, and is also a fashion model. Carl and Yaya have been dating each other for less than a year. (Tragically, Dean died on August 29, 2022, of septicemia, the medical term for blood poisoning, which came from an untreated lung infection. She was 32.)

Carl is first seen during a casting call audition for a runway show. He and other male models, who are all shirtless, are being interviewed by a flamboyant social media personality named Lewis (played by Tobias Thorwid), who openly flirts with the models. Lewis asks Carl and the other models to show the different facial expressions that they use for haute couture modeling (a serious face) and commercial mass merchant modeling (a smiling face).

When Lewis yells out “Balenciaga,” Carl and the other models put on their serious faces. When Lewis yells out “H&M,” Carl and the other models put on their smiling faces. Lewis keeps repeating “Balenciaga” and “H&M,” and the models keep changing their facial expressions, like they’re robots being ordered to do someone’s bidding. It’s the movie’s way of showing how models are often treated like robots.

When it’s Carl’s turn to go in front of the judging panel, a snooty male casting agent comments to Carl about the middle of Carl’s forehead: “Can you relax your triangle of sadness?” In the production notes for “Triangle of Sadness,” writer/director Östlund comments on why he chose this phrase as the title of the movie.

“It’s a term used in the beauty industry,” Östlund says. “A friend sat next to a plastic surgeon at a party and, after a quick look at her face, he said, ‘Oh, you have a quite deep triangle of sadness… but I can fix that with Botox in 15 minutes.’ He was referring to a wrinkle between her eyebrows. In Swedish, it’s called ‘trouble wrinkle,’ and it suggests you’ve had a lot of struggles in your life. I thought it said something about our era’s obsession with looks and that inner well-being is, in some respects, secondary.”

It’s no coincidence that the central couple in this movie are models in the fashion industry, which places a high value on youth and outer beauty. Modeling is one of the few jobs where women make more money than men. And because Yaya’s income is much higher than Carl’s income, this disparity has caused some problems in their relationship.

The problems become evident when Carl and Yaya have what is supposed to be a romantic dinner at a restaurant, but this date devolves into an argument over who is going to pay for the dinner. Carl has flown out to visit Yaya, who’s on a modeling assignment. And he’s been consistently paying for their meals during this trip.

But at this particular dinner, Yaya had offered to pay, and Carl accepted the offer. When the bill is placed on the table, Yaya pretends that she doesn’t see it and silently puts the responsibility on Carl to pay the bill. When he reminds her that she offered to pay for the dinner, it leads to a disagreement that isn’t really about the bill about it’s about power and control in the relationship.

Carl says that if women want equality, they should be willing to pay for dates on occasion if they offer to do so. Yaya agrees to pay for dinner. Carl concedes that he didn’t mean to raise his voice with Yaya and tells her, “Now, I feel bad.” However, Yaya gives a passive-aggresssive insult to Carl when she tells him, “It’s okay. I make more money than you.”

And then, it’s Yaya’s turn to be embarrassed. The credit card that she uses to pay for the dinner is declined. And so, Carl ends up paying for the dinner in cash. On the cab drive back to their hotel, Carl wants to talk about this money issue, but Yaya doesn’t. She tells Carl: “It’s not sexy to talk about money.”

Carl replies, “We shouldn’t slip into the same gender-based roles everyone else seems to be doing. I want us to be equal.” Carl won’t let the issue go, and he confronts Yaya about something that he saw her do at the restaurant: She took a €50 bill that was meant for the dinner payment, and she kept it for herself.

It leads to an even bigger verbal blow-up between the couple, who end up shouting at each other in the hotel elevator. Eventually, Carl and Yaya call a truce, but they both know that the argument isn’t about the money for that dinner. Yaya admits that she’s materialistic and says that one of the reasons why she became a model was to become “someone’s trophy wife.”

Yaya also confesses that she purposely ignored the restaurant bill when it was placed on the table because she really wanted Carl to offer to pay for dinner. Yaya tells Carl, “I need to know that if I fall pregnant that the person I’m with will take care of me.” All of these comments are Yaya’s obvious ways of telling Carl that if he eventually doesn’t make more money than she does, she’s going to lose interest in him.

In the “Triangle of Sadness” production notes, Östlund says that this argument over who would pay for dinner happened in real life with him and his fashion photographer wife, Sina, before they were married. Ruben and Sina Östlund might have had a happy ending after this argument, but things are much rockier for Carl and Yaya. The first part of the movie is focused on this argument as a foreshadowing of some turmoil to come.

In “Part Two: The Yacht,” Carl and Yaya have been invited by one of Yaya’s fashion connections to go on a luxury cruise on a yacht. Yaya is a social media influencer, who makes money by endorsing products and services on her social media accounts. During this trip, she fulfills these sponsor obligations by posing for photos on the yacht, with Carl as her photographer.

This part of the movie introduces several other people on the yacht and puts further emphasis on the social class divisions that separate the yacht’s subservient workers and the yacht’s privileged passengers. Carl and Yaya eventually meet several of these other passengers, some of whom are quirkier than others. Carl comes from a working-class background, and he often feels like he doesn’t quit fit in with these people who are accustomed to being rich.

Not long after their yacht trip begins, Carl and Yaya meet Dimitry (played by Zlatko Burić), a Russian agriculture mogul who made his fortune from selling fertilizer. Dimitry is on this yacht with his snobby and demanding wife Vera (played by Sunnyi Melles) and his mistress Ludmilla (played by Carolina Gynning), who is young enough to be his daughter. Dimitry and Vera seem to have an open marriage, because Vera and Ludmilla know about each other and hang out together with Dimitry on the yacht. Dimitry likes to brag to other people about how he became wealthy in a “rags to riches” story, but there’s a nouveau-riche crudeness in the way that Dimitry talks and acts.

An elderly British married couple named Winston (played by Oliver Ford Davies) and Clementine (played by Amanda Walker) are very polite and proper, but viewers might perceive these seemingly harmless senior citizens differently when it’s revealed why these spouses are rich. Another couple on the yacht are German spouses Uli (played by Ralph Schicha) and Therese (played by Iris Berben), who uses a wheelchair because she had a stroke. Uli is very attentive and devoted to Therese, who is mostly mute, except for when she utters the only words that she seems capable of saying: “in de wolken,” which is German for “in the clouds.”

Later in the movie, Yaya and Ludmilla meet a lonely, rich bachelor named Jarmo (played by Henrik Dorsin) at the yacht’s main bar. Jarmo invited a woman to be his companion on this trip, but she stood him up for this date. Jarmo wants to show this woman that he’s having a good time without her, so he asks Yaya to take a photo of him at the bar, because he wants to send the photo to the woman who snubbed him.

When Yaya and Ludmilla hear Jarmo’s story about the woman who rejected him, they both offer to take a selfie photo with Jarmo, so that Jarmo can send a picture looking like he’s having fun with two beautiful women on this yacht. Jarmo is so grateful, he immediately tells Yaya and Ludmilla, “I’m very rich,” and he offers to buy Rolex watches for Yaya and Ludmilla as thank you gifts. They both decline the offer, but it’s an example of Jarmo’s insecurity in thinking that he has to tell people that he’s rich, in order to impress people and buy friendships.

The yacht’s workers include a perky yet no-nonsense staff director named Paula (played by Vicki Berlin), who is a combination of a task master and a cheerleader for the employees. Paula is fanatical about the ship remaining tidy and orderly, and she tells the staffers to say yes to anything that the passengers ask them to do. Paula also leads the employees in pep talks and group chants to build team solidarity and loyalty.

Two other yacht staffers are a maid named Abigail (played by Dolly de Leon) and a repairman named Nelson (played by Jean-Christophe Folly), who are mostly in the background during “Part Two: The Yacht,” but their personalities emerge during “Part Three: The Island.” Abigail and Nelson are two of the few people of color who work on the ship, and they are both given jobs where they don’t interact much with the passengers. Observant viewers will notice that on this yacht, only white employees have the jobs that require the most interaction with the passengers.

The movie shows an example of how far Paula wants her employees to go to please the wealthy passengers on the yacht. A young and relatively new employee named Alicia (played by Alicia Ericksson) is asked by Vera to go for a dip in a jacuzzi with her, while Alicia is on duty. Alicia is reluctant to do so, but she also remembers that Paula ordered the staff to always say yes to a passenger’s request, no matter how unusual or difficult the request is.

Alicia doesn’t have a swimsuit with her at that moment, but Vera says that Alicia can strip down to her underwear. Vera can see that Alicia is uncomfortable, but Vera doesn’t seem to care. Eventually, Alicia obliges this request. But when Paula hears how reluctant Alicia was to say yes to this request, Paula overcompensates by ordering the entire staff to go on the water slides with the passengers.

The yacht’s leader is Captain Thomas Smith (played by Woody Harrelson), who is a drunken mess. In the “Triangle of Sadness” production notes, Östlund describes the captain as “an idealist, an alcoholic and a Marxist.” Paula and the ship’s first mate Darius (played by Arvin Kananian) spend considerable effort trying to get the intoxicated Captain Smith out of his room in time for the captain’s dinner with the yacht’s most influential and richest passengers.

It’s at this dinner when all hell breaks loose. Something causes the passengers to get sick and violently vomit. Things get worse when the yacht explodes and not everyone makes it out alive. It’s enough to say that the people who do survive end up stranded on a remote island. (This isn’t spoiler information because it’s in the movie’s trailer.)

Being stranded on this island strips away a lot of the social hierarchies and perceptions of power that existed on the yacht. This third and final part of the movie has some twists and turns that make “Triangle of Sadness” worth watching. However, because this major shift in the story comes so late in the movie, much of it feels crammed-in and rushed.

With a total running time 149 minutes, “Triangle of Sadness” could have used tighter film editing. The movie took a little too much time with “Part Two: The Yacht,” which is a bit repetitive in showing how these vacationers take their privilege and social status for granted. “Part Three: The Island” also has some scenes that wander, although the scenes in the last third of the movie have more of an overall purpose. Despite these imperfections in the movie’s film editing, the dialogue in “Triangle of Sadness” remains sharp and engaging.

Dickinson and de Leon give the movie’s standout performances as Carl and Abigail. On the surface, Carl and Abigail both seem to have very little in common. But beneath the surface, they both have something big in common: They feel like underappreciated outsiders in their own worlds. And they both show some rebellion and resentment as a result of feeling like they have been denied access to things that they think they deserve.

The very last image in “Triangle of Sadness” can be interpreted in many different ways—and that open-endedness at the movie’s conclusion will either frustrate some viewers, or it will invite viewers to come up with theories about what really happened at the end of this story. Despite this ambiguous ending, “Triangle of Sadness” has a lot of interesting commentary and observations about why society’s divisions between the “haves” and “have nots” can affect how people treat each other—and how these divisions are often based on shallow criteria that do not truly reflect someone’s inner character.

Neon released “Triangle of Sadness” in select U.S. cinemas on October 7, 2022.

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