Back, Scoundrels: Eating the Rich on Film

Class conflict is certainly a complicated enough subject to demand different movies. The Menu is a horror film, and Triangle of Sadness is a comedy; Triangle premiered at a 75-year-old festival, and, save for a vanishingly brief theatrical window, Glass Onion is available only on Netflix. Glass Onion was a pleasant way to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and after taking my family to The Menu, my mom wouldn’t talk to me. But beneath these superficial differences are fundamental similarities: they all feature a cast of rich and entitled blowhards. They all torment these blowhards for our amusement. All three even take place on islands nobody can escape. Given their success both critical (Triangle’s Palme d’Or) and financial (Glass Onion had Netflix’s best theatrical premiere ever), we see how economic inequality has become one of Hollywood’s most durable topics. Ironically, these movies have helped to stabilize the free trade of the theatrical marketplace.