So we chose these two films because we went to watch them around the same time and they are both socially conscious movies. Hence, we thought they would make a decent comparison.
Don't Worry Darling
Pros: Florence Pugh. Great costumes and the 1950's set designs. The concept is good and some of the visuals show artistic competence. The directing actually used visual storytelling at points which is rare in todays mainstream Hollywood stuff. Also, Chris Pine of all people managed to be sufficiently creepy - he should really try playing more ambigious characters.
Cons: Better main male actor. He is not the worst by far but somebody more talented in the craft was definitely needed, especially opposite Pugh. This gap in talent lead the performances to be rather uneven and is detrimental to the story and characters. We mentioned the concept being interesting but unfortunately that does not translate fully to execution - it can be sloppy at points and leave you questioning why they made certain decisions. We understand the decision to show how women are victimised by patriarchy and how important it is to show that hurt. Nor do we want to side with Peterson incels in any way - but showing maybe a little more of these men's thought process helps to bring understanding why these patriarchal settings are so hard to resist and dismantle. This is where the movie falls short and unfortunately a large part of it falls on casting a Frank Sinatra - type as the male lead when it should have been a Marlon Brando - type.
Triangle of Sadness
Pros: Great directing, visually sumptious and funny. Showing the decadence of the upper echelons of society that turn into a puke fest and the communist American ship captain and a Russian capitalist arguing about class systems while the yacht is sinking is some of the film's more hilarious parts. The movie achieves its objective of showing how hierarchies persist even in more primitive settings if the people consisting in that setting have lived in a capitalist society. Human greed will reproduce that system of hierarchy in a vicious cycle. This film is more of an ensemble piece so actors play off of each other more and work as groups (which is in a way ironic, since the movie is focused on showing the pitfalls of purely individualistic society) and this lessens the burden on just one actor doing most of the work like happened in Don't Worry Darling.
Cons: This is funny coming from us (since we are often more collectivist than individualist) but because the film focuses on in no character in particular the story feels less personal and thus less interesting to us. We like the themes of hierarchy, decadence, greed and learned helplessness of most Western people because technocapitalism makes most everything convenient (especially to upper classes), but it is harder for us to connect to the outcome of the story since we are not guided to care about any character in particular. We understand that is the whole point of the film but what can we say, personal stories are our bread and butter.
General: If we had to pick one to recommend, it would be Triangle of Sadness. It is just all around the better movie both filmwise and storywise. Though Don't Worry Darling does have the more personal aspect in the story it leaves other important things needed in good storytelling halfway and is the reason why it doesn't quite fulfill its potential.
