Oscar’s Trifecta of Excellence
Article by Ray Schillaci
The last article I posted had me lamenting about the quality of films in the 2023 Best Picture category. Admittedly, I had yet to see Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front. After screening all of these powerful films, I found that all three were superior examples of filmmaking at its finest. They were far more powerful, had so much more to say and were emotionally draining. All of the films are available for streaming for free depending on what platforms you subscribe to and that is a big plus for movie lovers.
Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is perhaps the lightest of the fare being both darkly satirical and dramatic about “the privileged,” models, influencers, the super rich, and those that serve their needs. Östlund skewers them all with great delight, opening with an audition of a group of young male models. This is where we discover the term of the title. When a rep from the company asks a male model to relax his “triangle of sadness,” the model is perplexed until it is explained that it is the triangle just above his eyebrows. The casting call alone is hilariously absurd.
The film is sectioned into three parts. Part one is Carl & Yaya – both are young, good looking models, but Yaya is obviously doing much better than her boyfriend. This leads to an uncomfortable dinner scene between the two. Though we can barely side with either one of them, it is Yaya that we tend to dislike more for her manipulating ways. Carl believes in love and wants a future with her while Yaya explains to him that her social media image is far more important and she wishes to eventually be a trophy wife.
Part two is The Yacht – Carl and Yaya are invited on a yacht for a social media promotion. They are on board with a group of social elitists that includes an octogenarian couple, Clementine and Winston, having made their riches manufacturing weapons of war. Clementine is senile, but no one will address the issue, especially her husband. Dimitry is a Russian oligarch that claims to be a fertilizer king and is accompanied by his spoiled wife Vera. Jarmo is a lonely middle-aged tech millionaire who tells young women on the cruise that his girlfriend could not make it, so he has them take pictures of himself feigning a good time. Then, there is Therese, a wheelchair-bound woman since her stroke that can only speak one sentence in German.
Sound fun yet? Wait…the captain on the cruise is none other than Woody Harrelson (at his drollest) who just does not want to deal with anybody and prefers to stay in his cabin and get sh*tfaced. We must not forget the crew. There are the grunts, the real workers – the cooks, cleaners, maintenance, those that keep the ship running.
Then there are those that have made it a way of life never to say no to a guest/passenger. These are the unfortunate souls that serve the elites’ every need, and that means
- no matter what
, just so that they can look forward to their tips at the end of the cruise. Obviously, this will end in a complete disaster, and we’re talking about one the size of an Irwin Allen film (The Poseidon Adventure) that will include…let’s just start with getting so sick at sea that it makes Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life – Mr. Creosote Blows Up look like Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. I was both gagging and laughing at the same time, all the while knowing that everybody was getting their comeuppance (yes – pun intended).
***SPOILER ALERT*** Part three is inevitable – The Island. That’s right, those that make it through it all end up having to try and survive on what appears to be a deserted island. But, how is that possible? The toilet manager proves to be far more resourceful than anyone imagined. Suddenly, she is the go to person and the tidy bowl has turned. She has these elitist eating out of her hand, even Carl and Yaya have a respect for her and the middle-aged woman’s demands are not just to get respect. To say anymore about Triangle of Sadness would spoil so much of the inventiveness of writer/director Ruben Östlund’s tragic-comedic tale that is both funny, thought provoking, and shocking with an ending that will leave you dumbfounded.
Stepping into far more serious territory, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front is not a remake of the 1930 classic film. It is a sobering, exhausting take on the original 1929 novel and is by far the best anti-war film to come out of Germany since Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot. I realize that is a mighty claim, but I felt the same exact feelings as Berger’s film ended, devastated while it took us to a place rarely seen – a war where old men sent young men to die. This is something I feel has happened far too often and why I feel films like this should be required viewing for history classes.
It is three years into WWI and Paul Bäumer, an idealistic German youth, is spoon-fed all the propaganda to make him and his friends rush to join the military and become heroes to the fatherland. Of all the war movies that I consumed as a young man I don’t recall ever seeing what the German youth were being told to fight so valiantly and sadly so foolishly for. Paul and his buddies never see the thousands being mowed down as their commanders insist they run through muddy terrain, barbed wire, a hail of gun fire and tanks flattening soldiers into the earth.
Paul is not even of age. He needs his father’s consent. His friends coerce him into their fold as if joining a fraternity of brotherhood and Paul forges his father’s signature. The whole idea of going off to fight and becoming heroes, having women flock at their feet, the fatherland taking care of them once they defeat the enemy is so romanticized, until they are actually there. The grimness creeps up as the new recruits are given new uniforms. Those clothes have been taken from the dead off the battlefield and have been washed and restitched up. An eerie sight.
The reality is not just a rude wake up call, it is a jarring fight for survival. Trench warfare is at its most brutal depiction and there is little time to even breathe. Hesitate, you die. Your friend dies in front of you. Your officer dies. No time to think, you have no choice but to move on or die. Director Berger not only captures the epic of the war torn battlefield, but also the claustrophobic close quarters of trench warfare like you’ve never seen it before. The action, furious, the violence, abrupt and disturbing. The horror captured in the eyes of the young soldiers is heartbreaking.
Each battle is more brutal than the next. Paul witnesses so many atrocities, he barely has time to question anything. With mounting losses ahead, the Germans have no choice but to begin armistice talks with the Allied powers. There is a glimmer of hope in some that perhaps the insanity may soon come to a close. This bristles those that know nothing else but being a soldier or commander. They would rather have their people die a good fight in battle than retreat and be left with a life of uncertainty.
So many complex themes are touched upon in Berger’s version. The film feels more personal, and perhaps it’s because it’s a German production rather than a Hollywood one. With so much carnage one does not expect any tenderness in such a film. Yet, Berger pulls it off with such subtlety, for example, when Paul reads a letter to his friend since the young man is illiterate and wishes to hear from his wife.
I relate the following not as spoilers, but as the importance of Berger’s artistry in telling this story. Paul’s friend Franz spends the night with a French woman and brings back her scarf as a souvenir. The scarf and its scent later plays great significance as it gets handed down. And, in perhaps the most devastating scene, during a fight on the battlefield, Paul loses himself and realizes what he has done to another young man. He mourns the loss as he discovers a picture of the man’s wife and child.
On November 10th, the Supreme Allied Commander gives the Germans 72 hours to accept the non-negotiable Allied terms. At this point, Germany has lost the war. The end is near. There is no reason other than pride to fight and face death.
Paul and a couple of his friends are just some of the survivors in the ranks of the wounded and disheveled. They only need to wait out the hours for peace. But, can they survive the anger of the French villagers, the wrath of General Friedrichs who desires a blaze of glory to the death, and their own psychological scars? Director Edward Berger and his co-writers Lesley Patterson and Ian Stokell have developed a tome for the wounded warrior, an epic that goes beyond a wartime drama, the film stokes flames in one’s heart and leaves your heart ache (as it should) to the realities of what should never be.
I leave you with the most powerful film of the year. One that I heard little about, and so the film took me totally by surprise when it placed me through an emotional wringer. Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is in a category all its own.
When I had asked someone who had seen the movie what it was about, they had reiterated about women talking that had been repressed and abused. The description did not do this film justice. Writer/director Polley has placed poetry into motion with this story based on the novel of the same name which was inspired by real-life events that happened at the Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite community in Bolivia.
Polley has a master class of a cast, from the leads Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, and Frances McDormand, to the very smallest parts played with such innocence by both the female and male children. Within ten minutes time as these women gather together for the first time to discuss amongst themselves whether they shall do nothing, stay and fight or leave the colony I was riveted. Polley is so in tune to the actors, dialogue and the tale they all need to tell it is uncanny how they all work their way into your heart and mind. It’s also hard to believe that this is all taking place in 2010.
This is not all about oppression, rape, violation, the subject matter is about God and faith. That’s what made me so angry. How many times have we heard how someone has used the almighty as a way to control people.
That’s exactly what was going on in this colony and many of these women had had enough. Enough of rape, incest, beatings, being told that the devil did these things to them and their children. It’s horrible, and it’s a hard film to watch. Not that we ever really see any of it. But, it is the strength that they find within these discussions whether they agree with each other or not that keeps us watching and never wanting to turn away.
Polley does not open with the rape scene, but instead displays the aftermath as she does with other stories that are told later. A young woman sleeps alone in bed, her legs bruised, wounds on her hips and thighs. The women have discovered that the men have been using cow tranquilizers to subdue and rape them. The man involved is taken and arrested, but the men of the colony gather together to free him on bail. This leaves the women alone for two days and gets them thinking about their alternatives.
The women take a vote. It is a tie between staying and fighting or leaving. They ask the school teacher, August, who is from an ex-communicated family, to take the minutes of the meeting since none can read or write. August is one of two decent men that inhabit the colony. The other, a transgender man who after being raped no longer speaks except to the children and now cares for them.
Ona, who is pregnant after being raped, appears to be the most even keel of the bunch. Although she never went to school, she is a smart one and August apparently has always had feelings for her. She has chosen to stay and fight, but with a set of rules to give women equality. She suggests August make out a list of pros and cons. All have their personal reasons and they will all be explored.
Salome is recently back from a trip getting antibiotics for her daughter that was assaulted and she wants to stay and fight. Mejal is very opinionated about this as well, wanting to fight no matter what. Others feel forgiveness is the answer for it was taught all their lives and what would God say if they disobeyed. That is addressed with a great deal of anger and rightfully so. Salome has even gone as far as threatening to kill her husband if necessary with no regrets. And, Mariche just wants to get away from the beatings.
The debate goes on for nearly two days while they continue to conduct their lives, with leaving looking to be the best possible option. But, it is not without risks. They are not educated, have no knowledge of where to go and time is ticking away as Mariche’s husband is about to be released from jail. It is not just the revelations of rape, incest and such, it’s the acceptance of everything as it has been handed down by generations and this too will come to a head.
Sarah Polley’s film has so much to say, not just about women, but about religion, God, our perceptions, man’s perceptions or interpretation. It the abuse that is handed down without knowing, without seeing, and for some refusing to recognizing it. Women Talking is about so many wrongs, but it is also about hope and faith. Not faith as in religion, but faith in humanity, in the future. That’s what makes Sarah Polley’s film stand out so far above the rest. It’s a very hard watch, but it is so well worth it. I only hope that she at least wins a much deserved Best Adapted Screenplay on Oscar night.
All three of these excellent pieces of cinema are available on PPV. Triangle of Sadness is now streaming on Hulu while All Quiet on the Western Front is on Netflix, and for a limited time, Women Talking is streaming for Amazon Prime subscribers. As much as some prominent directors have rallied against the streaming industry, there have been a great deal of pluses along the way. Far more content is now available to the public and there is a definite home for the filmmaker that is a true artist.
Visit Ray’s blog at themonsterinmyhead.com
