Early April Film Reviews (Triangle of Sadness, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Tetris)

Spring is here! The flowers are starting to bloom and the days are getting longer. You can’t spend all of your time outdoors though (because it’s too cold sometimes still and there are April showers). So let’s take a look at three movies and decide whether any are worthy of your time as we enter this new season.

Pictured: Springtime

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

NEON, 159 minutes

Triangle of Sadness is a black comedy and the English-language debut of Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund. The film is broken into three distinct parts that, while each features a couple of the same characters, feel distinct from one another. Overall, it provides a satirical look at the absurdity of the world’s wealthiest class (and society as a whole), something that’s become a common subject for movies and TV shows lately (as in The White Lotus, Succession, The Menu, Infinity Pool, and many others).

The black comedy style and absurdist elements of the film reminded me somewhat of the works of Yorgos Lanthimos, a filmmaker whose written and directed movies like The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I’d consider the dialogue and tone of Lanthimos’ works to be more “out there” than Triangle of Sadness, and I definitely prefer The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (both of which are fantastic films) to this movie, but there’s still definitely a similarity in their styles. Like Lanthimos’ movies, Triangle of Sadness feels different from the majority of comedies that are released, and that’s a good thing.

On the less positive side of things, Triangle of Sadness feels too long, with the opening part of the movie, focusing on a couple of models, being the film’s least interesting segment. There are also several scenes of rich passengers on a luxury yacht getting extremely seasick towards the middle of the film that could have been (mercifully) shortened. Overall though, if you’re a fan of this type of humor, you’ll likely enjoy Triangle of Sadness.

Grade: 7/10

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

Focus Features, 115 minutes

Every now and then, it’s nice to watch a film where the stakes just aren’t super high. Such is the case in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, an accurately titled light comedy and drama in which a widowed cleaning lady named Mrs. Harris does, in fact, go to Paris.

After discovering a fancy couture Dior dress in the closet of one of her wealthy employers, Mrs. Harris decides that she absolutely must have a similar dress for herself and begins saving up enough money to purchase such an expensive article of clothing. It’s no easy feat, but she eventually saves up enough and heads to Paris (and I don’t consider this to be a spoiler since it’s occurrence is described in the title of the film).

As she embarks on her adventure, Mrs. Harris meets an interesting cast of characters employed by the House of Dior. Of course, in her quest to buy her perfect dress, an array of obstacles do arise, and you’ll just have to watch for yourself if you want to see if the ever-pleasant and charming Mrs. Harris is up to the task. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris isn’t a particularly deep or sophisticated film, but it’s certainly a pleasant one.

Grade: 7/10

Tetris (2023)

Apple TV+, 118 minutes

I really enjoyed the first forty-five or so minutes of Apple TV’s new streaming movie, Tetris, but sadly it was all downhill from there. The film tells the “true story” of the creation of Tetris and how it became a worldwide hit, despite being developed by a programmer living in the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, the real true story of how this all happened isn’t quite interesting enough to merit the creation of a feature length film, so what we get here is a bit of what actually happened mixed with all the cliché elements you’d find in a Cold War mystery-thriller. There’s everything from a sinister KGB agent with slicked-back hair, to an attractive female spy, to a car chase. None of this really works, and it all ends up feeling a tad ridiculous. I understand that a movie that focused solely on an actual contract dispute wouldn’t have been too interesting, but, well, that’s why this movie probably shouldn’t have been made.

I think that a 45-60 minute documentary about the creation of Tetris could be a really intriguing and worthwhile watch. This is certainly not that. Tetris feels even longer than its two hour runtime and doesn’t quite merit a watch. While it’s never really awful, and the acting and look of the film are fine, you’d probably have a better time playing actual Tetris for two hours than watching this one.

Grade: 4.5/10