Saltburn - Movie Review

Critics Score - 9 of 10

General Audience Score - 9 of 10

The first movie review I ever wrote, the film that inspired me to begin writing reviews almost three years ago, was the directorial debut from Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman. That film review, although I go back and read it now and cringe, (please don’t go read it because it’s not good), was the first big stepping stone for my journey into the wonderful world of critiquing cinema. But now, the Oscar winning screenplay writer Fennell is back with her follow-up film from Amazon Studios that drops into theatres on Thanksgiving, and it’s called Saltburn. It’s the story of a lonely young man that goes to college, meets another male student at the school that he immediately takes a liking to, yet his motives remain unclear. The movie explores the themes of gluttonous extravagance, sexual desire, carnal depravity and it provides plenty of shocking moments that’ll leave audiences laughing and gasping along the way. Although the film takes a bit too long meandering it’s way through the second act, general audiences and critics alike won’t need any more pepper on this spicy dish of a film, it’s already loaded with Saltburn.

SYNOPSIS - This twisted tale of manipulation begins with some voiceover from our main protagonist Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), he speaks about being in love. We begin to see shots of the handsome young Felix (Jacob Elordi), with his eyebrow pierced and long dark hair, he has the Timothée Chalamet look on lockdown. We watch clips of Felix kissing girls, getting undressed while Oliver looks on from outside a window, “I loved him of course”, he expresses, “But was I in love with him?”, he muses as some opera style music begins to blare into our ears. We then get a tracking shot of Oliver, we’re behind him following him through a courtyard surrounded by old, renaissance style dorm room buildings, it’s the beginning of his first semester at Oxford, it’s 2006. As he walks, a classmate Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), makes a comment about his appearance, which Oliver ignores. But when we finally get a look at Oliver as he’s setting his things down in his dorm room, with his button up blue Izod shirt, glasses and combover haircut, we can see where he might draw some nerd comparisons. Oliver looks out his window on the plaza filled with rich youngsters and sees the popular Felix, smoking, surrounded by classmates and girls, Oliver stares at him a moment until Felix looks up and spots him looking, forcing him to duck back behind his curtain. One day Oliver is riding his bike around campus and runs into Felix who’s own bike had a flat tire and he’s going to be late for class. Oliver lends him his bike and Felix appreciatively thanks him and heads off, then a few days later at a bar Felix is drinking with a group of friends, notices Oliver and waves him over to have a drink with them.

This kicks off a relationship between the two, we spend the rest of the first act watching it develop, but comments made in passing to Oliver give us the impression that this friendship may be a fleeting or disposable one, at least from Felix’s point of view. But when summer hits and Felix invites Oliver to his house, which they refer to as Saltburn, we finally see that Felix comes not just from good money, like a good six figure income money, but this house that we spend the rest of the film with makes Richie Rich look like a ragamuffin. As they enjoy themselves with Felix’s quirky but decent family, his sly sister Annabel (Sadie Soverall), his talkative mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) and welcoming father Sir James (Richard E. Grant) are more than happy to have a couple of their children’s friends staying with them. This includes the strangely gothic and tattooed Pamela (Carey Mulligan) who the parents are somewhat taking pity on and the previously mentioned Farleigh, who has a bit of a contentious relationship with Oliver. As the summer unwinds and the second act drags out at Saltburn full of naked field hangouts, pond side relaxing and black tie dinners, some of the power plays between characters begins to clue us into the spiderweb of deception, manipulation and conniving that’s taking place behind the scenes. But where it’s all headed and how this web will all unravel in the end remains a mystery until one big final party to end the summer season before they head back to school. To say Saltburn is a shocking film is a bit of an understatement, this movie will take you on a rollercoaster ride like not many can, some will look to get off the ride halfway through, but a good majority would turn right around and get back on for another ride.

When it came to the direction of the film, this is almost as impressive of an accomplishment for a second feature as Promising Young Woman was for Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut, a work that won her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Her eye for detail in crafting this story that blends seamlessly with the cinematography and acting is really something special. When it comes to her screenplay this time though, it’s fair to ask if Fennell injects elements into this story just for the sake of shock value and is effectively trying to create controversy and discussion about her latest effort. That argument can certainly be made and I won’t fault anybody who thinks so. I felt that although a couple scenes did teeter on the brink of being unnecessary to tell the story that Fennell ultimately gets to tell us, for myself, it all mostly worked well within the world she had created. As I mentioned, this film is absolutely gorgeous, the cinematography is superb, some of the shot compositions, including a few upside down reflection shots, were completely mind blowing. The production design is impressive, this movie aside, the house is incredibly beautiful on its own. But combine that with some of the uses of color in the film, for instance when they throw a party and later when they’re out by a pond with beach rafts and floats, made some striking and contrasting images and was some highly impressive visual work. The pacing of the film was a bit lacking into the second act, I began to feel the drag, with Fennell’s prior effort being almost fifteen minutes tighter, losing a few minutes to the editing room floor might have served this film well. The efforts of Barry Keoghan are not to be undersold, while most of this performance is on the subtle side, you can absolutely revel in it by the finale, but I highly doubt this work will bag him another Oscar nomination. The rest of the cast is good, Richard E. Grant is always a delightful presence, although I did think Carey Mulligan was miscast as a punk rock friend of the family. For better or for worse, this is a film that makes an impression, it stays with you, it’s been two days since I’ve watched it and not much time passes before I’m thinking about it some more. Take from that what you will, but for me, that’s a sign that somebody did something right.

SUMMARY - Emerald Fennell will continue to establish herself as the queen of controversy with her new film, some will hate it, some will walk out in disgust, but many will laugh, cringe and thoroughly enjoy their watching experience. While the film doesn’t hit the same levels of precision as Promising Young Woman, there’s plenty of reasons why you should go for round two with Fennell and feel the Saltburn.