Well, that was different. Emerald Fennell comes charging out of the gate with a transgressive sophomore feature after the excellent and timely Promising Young Woman for another in-your-face black comedy thriller, this time an incendiary commentary on class, obsession, and other related themes. A love-it-or-hate-it type movie people could say, bordering on weird for the sake of weird, but so well-crafted and just dense that it cannot be ignored. Fennell is a formidable creative force who isn't afraid to go dark. Despite some obvious influences like The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Great Gatsby, and Parasite, Saltburn is a perverse and memorable dramady that is certainly not for everyone, precariously balancing thought-provoking ideas with shocks.
The film follows a humble Oxford scholarship student named Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, an outsider among these elites who manages to befriend a popular student named Felix (Jacob Elordi) and is invited to his palatial estate for the summer. He meets his whole family who're unsurprisingly shallow decadent alcoholics, par for the course with these types of eat-the-rich movies but pulled off with the parents being played by the great actors Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant. What follows is a series of over-the-top partying and vacationing interspersed with some genuinely funny scenes, and then some gross-out parts where Oliver reveals himself as a manipulative freak who slowly worms his way into their lives. Things go downhill toward disaster, twists and turns occur, and the audience's mental state is put to the test.
Saltburn will polarize viewers, but it can't be denied that the directing/cinematography and acting is fantastic. I loved the visuals, surprisingly hazy and dreamlike at times, nearly resembling something like The Green Knight which also featured Keoghan in a supporting role, and flirting with the surreal. The grounds of the mansion look like Wonderland and act as an enchantment on Oliver as he learns to come out of his shell and play the part of a debauched aristocrat... but the younger family members aren't buying it. Oliver is a very complex character whose actions are cast in a different light on a rewatch when you know how it all ends. One of my favorite aspects of the movie were the mind games that get played, which these actors portrayed wonderfully. Fennell is clearly very strong with writing these kinds of scenarios and must delight in pitting her characters against each other in cat-and-mouse games. Keoghan is perfect for playing sinister weirdos and nails the lead role here, despite being too old for the part at age 30. I would've preferred that the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie kind of ending was actually kept more ambiguous and Oliver portrayed like a phantom or Dracula, similar to how Hannibal Lecter is portrayed in the Bryan Fuller series and given the almost otherworldly visuals and mystery in the plot, but the seemingly maligned ending actually worked for me and leaves a lot to think about.
There have been numerous us vs. Them class commentary films these past seven years or so, mostly thrillers. Saltburn though eventually justifies covering this well trodden theme, similar to Promising Young Woman by going into surprisingly dark and downbeat territory at the end. And like ...Woman, the third act walks a very fine line between comedy and tragedy. This is one of Fennell's biggest strengths, with a seemingly cynical worldview that's felt in everything about both movies and funneled through the lens of a sort of ironic kind of parody style; I'm not even entirely sure how to describe it. But it sure is different, and that uniqueness is noteworthy. Saltburn will be very divisive and a daring project to make in today's hypersensitive PC times. Figures that it's from England, as I almost can't imagine anything too subversive coming from the US these days other than from a very established director or the indie film world. Perhaps we'll learn how to be daring again at some point, but at least in the meantime, international films and some American indie ones are pulling it off. Saltburn isn't perfect, but stands out from the rest and is certainly memorable, a haunting mystery satire about lost people that is somehow pretty fun to watch. It's a bit of a brain tease, and can only be recommended to open-minded viewers who aren't afraid to be grossed out or have your world view challenged.
The film follows a humble Oxford scholarship student named Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, an outsider among these elites who manages to befriend a popular student named Felix (Jacob Elordi) and is invited to his palatial estate for the summer. He meets his whole family who're unsurprisingly shallow decadent alcoholics, par for the course with these types of eat-the-rich movies but pulled off with the parents being played by the great actors Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant. What follows is a series of over-the-top partying and vacationing interspersed with some genuinely funny scenes, and then some gross-out parts where Oliver reveals himself as a manipulative freak who slowly worms his way into their lives. Things go downhill toward disaster, twists and turns occur, and the audience's mental state is put to the test.
Saltburn will polarize viewers, but it can't be denied that the directing/cinematography and acting is fantastic. I loved the visuals, surprisingly hazy and dreamlike at times, nearly resembling something like The Green Knight which also featured Keoghan in a supporting role, and flirting with the surreal. The grounds of the mansion look like Wonderland and act as an enchantment on Oliver as he learns to come out of his shell and play the part of a debauched aristocrat... but the younger family members aren't buying it. Oliver is a very complex character whose actions are cast in a different light on a rewatch when you know how it all ends. One of my favorite aspects of the movie were the mind games that get played, which these actors portrayed wonderfully. Fennell is clearly very strong with writing these kinds of scenarios and must delight in pitting her characters against each other in cat-and-mouse games. Keoghan is perfect for playing sinister weirdos and nails the lead role here, despite being too old for the part at age 30. I would've preferred that the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie kind of ending was actually kept more ambiguous and Oliver portrayed like a phantom or Dracula, similar to how Hannibal Lecter is portrayed in the Bryan Fuller series and given the almost otherworldly visuals and mystery in the plot, but the seemingly maligned ending actually worked for me and leaves a lot to think about.
There have been numerous us vs. Them class commentary films these past seven years or so, mostly thrillers. Saltburn though eventually justifies covering this well trodden theme, similar to Promising Young Woman by going into surprisingly dark and downbeat territory at the end. And like ...Woman, the third act walks a very fine line between comedy and tragedy. This is one of Fennell's biggest strengths, with a seemingly cynical worldview that's felt in everything about both movies and funneled through the lens of a sort of ironic kind of parody style; I'm not even entirely sure how to describe it. But it sure is different, and that uniqueness is noteworthy. Saltburn will be very divisive and a daring project to make in today's hypersensitive PC times. Figures that it's from England, as I almost can't imagine anything too subversive coming from the US these days other than from a very established director or the indie film world. Perhaps we'll learn how to be daring again at some point, but at least in the meantime, international films and some American indie ones are pulling it off. Saltburn isn't perfect, but stands out from the rest and is certainly memorable, a haunting mystery satire about lost people that is somehow pretty fun to watch. It's a bit of a brain tease, and can only be recommended to open-minded viewers who aren't afraid to be grossed out or have your world view challenged.