🍿52: Triangle of Sadness
This week, the Japanese actor that turned down the role of Obi-Wan and a rare 5* review.
“The rich. You know why they’re so odd? Because they can afford to be.”
~ Batman, 1989
Let’s cut to the chase…
There’s a lot to get through this week, so let’s get to it!
Here are this week’s headlines:
A teaser trailer for Pale Blue Eye, a gruesome murder mystery set in 1830s America has been released. The film stars Christian Bale as Augustus Landor and Harry Melling as Edgar Allen Poe. Watch the trailer.
Lupita Nyong’o is set to star in the upcoming prequel, In A Quiet Place: Day One. Not much is known about the film, only that Michael Sarnoski (Pig) is slated to direct. Read more.
Mads Mikkelsen will be reunited with Bryan Fuller (writer/producer of Hannibal) who is set to make his directorial debut, Dust Bunny. Read more.
Spike Lee has boarded the award-winning short film Hallelujah as executive producer as the film continues its festival run. Read more.
And finally, Jennifer Lawrence is to drop out of Adam McKay’s next project, Bad Blood. If the film goes ahead, it’ll be a cinematic adaptation of the limited series The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Read more.
Salty Popcorn is 100% free, but if you enjoy SP, please consider buying us a cinema ticket for just £5 per month - or a bunch of tickets for just £30 per year. Thank you!
Upcoming Releases
The Eternal Daughter
UK: 2 December // USA: 2 December
Written, produced and directed by Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir), The Eternal Daughter sees Tilda Swinton dual-cast as an artist and her elderly mother. Together, they confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home that’s now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.
Wildcat
UK: 21 December // USA: 21 December
The documentary follows young veteran Harry on his journey into the Amazon, where he meets PhD candidate Samantha running a wildlife rescue and rehab centre. Harry’s life finds new meaning when he’s entrusted with an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life turns out to be an unexpected journey of love, discovery, and healing.
This isn’t the typical trailer to feature in SP, but I guarantee it’ll melt your heart.
Fact of the week
The Star Wars franchise might not scream samurai culture, but George Lucas found a lot of inspiration in the works of the legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and his work with actor Toshiro Mifune, who together made Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Hidden Fortress.
In fact, Lucas wanted to cast Mifune as Obi-Wan Kenobi but he turned down the role - more than once. Speaking about her father, Mika Mifune said:
“I heard from my father that he was offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he was concerned about how the film would look and that it would cheapen the image of samurai, on which George Lucas had based a lot of the character and fighting style.
“At the time, sci-fi movies still looked quite cheap as the effects were not advanced and he had a lot of samurai pride. So then, there was talk about him taking the Darth Vader role as his face would be covered, but in the end, he turned that down too.”
Review: Triangle of Sadness
Star rating:
5 (out of 5)
Where to watch:
USA: Only in cinemas
UK: Only in cinemas
Runtime:
2hr 20m
Director:
Ruben Östlund
Blurb:
When a cruise for the super-rich sinks, the survivors, including a celebrity couple, find themselves trapped on an island.
The review (NO spoilers):
This year’s winner of the coveted Palme d’Or is a laugh-out-loud rebuke of the 1% and offers a sense of catharsis for anyone feeling the pinch of inflation and rising living costs. Without wanting to get too political, Triangle of Sadness is a comedic triumph and easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Director Ruben Östlund wastes no time in getting his claws into the audience with the film’s heavily dialogue-driven first act. Here, the dynamic between two of the most central characters, Yaya (played by the late Charlbi Dean Kriek) and Carl (Harris Dickinson), is put under the microscope. As characters, they’re completely unrelatable for most people but there’s something remarkably true and recognisable about their discourse, and their chemistry is captivating.
While a lot of what happens on screen is expected (to some extent), unlike most predictable film plots, Triangle isn’t shallow. The script is so rich with drama and wit that you’re distracted from your own predictions. And when anything that could be labelled as ‘predictable’ does happen, it doesn’t feel ‘typical’, it feels validating.
The Guardian’s critics didn’t enjoy this film half as much as I did. While I think both Peter Bradshaw (who rated 2*) and Wendy Ide (who rated 3*) make a couple of fair points, it seems to me that they don’t appreciate the humour, or simply don’t get it.
The biggest criticism they — and Mark Kermode — have with the film, is that the super-rich are too easy a target for good satire. A fair point perhaps, but I for one am happy to enjoy a good ribbing of the rich.
Scroll down to see what’s in the next issue.
If you liked Triangle of Sadness…
The Square
2017 | UK: Mubi / Amazon Prime (£2.49) // USA: Amazon Prime (free for subs)
Ruben Östlund won his first Palme d’Or with The Square. In it, a decadent curator faces an existential crisis, as does his gallery, when he hires a PR team to build some hype for his renowned Swedish museum.
In the next issue:
Call Jane
UK: 4 November // USA: 28 October | Watch the Trailer
