Tang Wei and Park Hae-il in Decision to Leave. Courtesy of MUBI via Everett Collection Choice to Leave The plot is familiar: while investigating a murder, Busan detective Jang Hae-jun(Park Hae-il) finds himself taken with the victim’s widow Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei)– who’s likewise the chief suspect. However director Park Chan-wook(Oldboy)makes the makes one of the most standard of noir set-ups feel fresh through his agitated, elegant instructions and a deep financial investment in his character’s psychological lives, especially a femme fatale(or is she?) illustrated with fantastic depth and fragility by Tang.
Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson in Triangle of Sadness. Thanks to Neon by means of Everett Collection
Triangle of Sadness
Nobody has more enjoyable skewering the rich than Ruben Östlund, and while Triangle of Unhappiness strikes with less accuracy than Force Majeure and The Square, it’s no less reliable. Set mainly on a luxe yacht hosting a gaggle of wealthy dodos (including a scene-stealing Zlatko Burić as a manure magnate), beleaguered team members, and a hapless captain (Woody Harrelson, released with militaristic performance), Triangle bristles with Östlund’s acerbic wit, particularly in the scenes in between Burić an Harrelson, but it likewise delivers visceral thrills with among the most gleefully nauseating scenes this side of Jackass Forever. (The director told GQ that Triangle’s huge barfing scene took “practically half a year to modify,” and the labor settles in its precise pacing.)
Thanks to fascinating efficiencies by Harris Dickinson as a generational himbo and the late Charlbi Dean as his effective model-turned-influencer girlfriend, Triangle of Sadness satirizes Instagram culture better than essentially any film before it. The third act is untidy, but it survives thanks to a commanding Dolly de Leon, who keeps the procedures from diverting too hard into cookie-cutter Lord of the Flies area. Taking huge swings at the fashion business, social media, and the aristocracy, Triangle of Sadness is a wild work you just let wash over you like waves of queasiness on a rocking boat.