Are We Entering the On-Screen Ultra-Rich’s Flop Era?

Gone are the days when our fascination with the ultra-rich bordered on obsession. Since the success of Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite (2019), there has been a spike in movies with class warfare as the central theme, and it hasn't been a great few years for the on-screen billionaires.

As the "eat the rich" films continue to rise, the one percenter's luck seems to be running out as they become victims of sinking cruise ships, burning mansions, and exquisitely murderous dining experiences. Last year alone, we had movies like Triangle of Sadness, The Menu, and Glass Onion,  all of which satirized the extremely wealthy and influential. 

This made us wonder, are we truly entering the on-screen ultra-rich's flop era?

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

What do we get when a bunch of rich people gathers on an island for an annual weekend getaway? Answer: A murder mystery and a mansion burning to the ground.

Reprising his role as Detective Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig's character gets invited on a weekend vacation on Miles Bron's (Edward Norton) private island. There, we meet his friend group who are all very influential in their respective industries.

Glass Onion takes a jab at our existing system through its problematic characters which evoke existing folks from the real world (Elon Musk). By establishing each character's relationship, with Bron at the center, we get to see how the upper class maintains an unjust system to protect their interests.

But without anything punitive and transgressive, the film feels a lot like a snarky Tweet. Yes, the tacky mansion burned to the ground, but without visible and castigating justice for the murder victims, the film lacked weight in its social commentary.

Overall, Glass Onion was just brimming with pop culture references, but there wasn't any other layer to peel off.

The Menu

Trudging the same route, The Menu serves a full-course meal of "us vs them.”

Following celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), we’re once again in the presence of one-percenters who can spend thousands of dollars for a one-night dining experience, while the rest of the world is facing food insecurity.

The night starts off slow and almost normal, but as it gradually heats up, Slowik’s dishes and its presentations start to become bizarre and ghoulish. The theme of each plate slowly becomes more apparent with every dish becoming more violent than the previous one.

As the movie builds up to a bloodied climax, it suddenly loses its grip on the flavorful resentment it started with. Although transparent in its attempt to tell an "us vs them" story–with Slowik appearing to recruit Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) in their rebellion because she's "one of them"–its lack of depth made class warfare inane.

Mark Mylod's film fell short of its execution by reducing the idea of class revenge into illogical and confusing tales of bitterly held (and deeply personal) grudges. With a fiery ending, The Menu felt shallow, leaving its audience hungry for social justice and craving cheeseburgers instead.

Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning Triangle of Sadness turns the table around through a viscerally amusing disaster. What was supposed to be a fun and indulgent weekend for the extremely wealthy, abruptly ends with a literal bang.

Divided into three chapters, the film introduces us to Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charli Dean Kriek) who get invited aboard a luxurious cruise ship for free. Together with a bunch of entitled and out-of-touch rich people, their situation takes an unexpected plunge when a violent storm hits their ship.

This caused our glamorous passengers to un-glamorously puke and swim in their own poop, while the boat's drunken captain and self-avowed Marxist (Woody Harrelson) ironically commandeers the P.A. system, ranting: “While you’re swimming in abundance, the rest of the world is drowning in misery.”

But as if this humiliation wasn’t enough, Östlund shifts the power dynamics of our remaining passengers. On a deserted island, where wealth suddenly means nothing, our wealthy characters' survival depends on toilet manager turned captain, Abigail (breakout star Dolly De Leon).

What's most interesting about Triangle of Sadness is how it's able to capture contempt and rage against an unfair system, only to end with an ambiguous conclusion where one of the possible lessons is: we're all equally rotten. Because while it's obvious that the movie hates witless wealth, it seems to dislike everyone else too.

As our society’s financial inequalities become more apparent, anti-capitalists satires and criticisms are important pieces of art. Sure they aren't the be-all and end-all of our social movements, but they are powerful tools in how we make sense of our material realities.

But with its ubiquity in our cinemas and streaming platforms, these films are starting to become tediously homogeneous. As it becomes formulaic in its storytelling, I worry that its rise in fame isn't a testament to our changing collective social consciousness but to Hollywood simply jumping on a profitable trend.

It is important for us to criticize how satire has evolved with the "eat the rich" genre. With the repression of dissent happening all over the world, we must preserve this literary tool that has been used for decades to expose social ills and problems. Failing to do so will reduce our very real struggles into nothing but profit for the already brimming pocket of the entertainment industry.