Ruben Östlund returns to the world scene with a bold, biting satire that skewers the western obsession with wealth, status, and surface perfection. It delivers a wild ride of laughs and provocation, designed to spark conversation long after the lights come up.
The filmmaker has shaped his English-language debut as a roller coaster ride, aiming for wide appeal while keeping a sharp, critical edge. His cast includes American performer Woody Harrelson, lending a familiar face to a story that blends European cinema’s intellectual bite with a brisk, entertainment-forward energy that invites a broader audience to lean in and think as the credits roll. The approach speaks to a common habit among European cinema—seriousness that occasionally sits at odds with audience expectations—and it finds a receptive wave of energy from festival crowds who respond to the film with enthusiasm and curiosity during late-night previews.
The narrative unfolds across three acts, beginning at a fashion show and ending on a remote island. The title nods to the fashion world’s fixation on concealing faults, a symbol of beauty culture’s market value, even as models increasingly let the world see a more complex truth underneath the glossy veneer. The opening segment follows a group of models and social media figures, including a pair named Carl and Yaya, as they navigate a quarrel over a bill. Östlund describes this portion as a doorway to his broader meditation on how beauty, commerce, and status intersect and influence behavior. His reflection on early exposure to the fashion world—an encounter with a photographer who opened his eyes to beauty as a social currency—anchors the film in a larger critique of how glamour can be both radiant and intimidating.
In the second act, the action shifts aboard a luxury cruise, where Carl and Yaya share the stage with a British weapons-maker couple, a Russian oligarch evoking political eras past, and a solitary tech founder. Harrelson’s captain character offers a drunken, sardonic take that unsettles the social order aboard the yacht. The captain identifies as an anarchist rather than a communist, a distinction that adds humor while inviting viewers to reassess ideas of power, allegiance, and governance amid opulence and excess.
Harrelson, with multiple Oscar nominations, remarks that collaborating with Östlund ranks among the best experiences in his career. He frames the journey as a forceful exploration of class, privilege, and social performance, a theme that threads through the ensemble’s dynamic and the film’s tonal shifts from wry banter to startling reversals.
During a dinner on the ship, a sudden storm drives the passengers indoors and heightens tension, giving rise to a sequence of wholly invented, laugh-out-loud scenarios. Yet the director’s eye remains compassionate, drawing from fellow Swedish filmmakers who balance satire with a humane curiosity about people and their motives. The result is a film that never loses sight of the human moments beneath the spectacle, even when the setting grows increasingly surreal.
The final act transports the story to a deserted island where wealth reveals surprising limits in practical skill. A power reversal unfolds as Abigail, a cleaner aboard the yacht, rises to a position of influence, delivering a jarring and thought-provoking shift in dynamics. The actress portraying Abigail describes the film as a deliberate exploration of how those who are often overlooked can suddenly seize control and reinterpret rules in a humorous light. The revelation underscores a central question: who truly dictates value when the furniture of affluence is stripped away?
On the language choice, the director explains that English is a natural step to reach a global audience, noting it is his second language. The aim is cinema that speaks to diverse viewers while acknowledging the stubborn reality that English-language narratives still dominate many markets. He also shares concerns that nuanced subtleties might be misunderstood in translation, highlighting the delicate balance between clarity and precision in cross-language storytelling. The film stands as a bold bridge between cultures, preserving a distinct European sensibility about satire, humanity, and the fragile lines between virtue and vanity.