Saltburn (2023) Movie Review
One thing we can respect about writer and director Emerald Fennell is that she swings for the fences. Her directorial debut, Promising Young Woman (2020), was a shocking look at a young woman attempting to dismantle the system of privelege and patriarchy that forced her life to go off the rails. Fennell’s sophomore effort, Saltburn, continues the trend of bold statements made with gusto.
Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is a student at Oxford University who doesn’t exactly fit in with the posh kids who surround him. He’s awkward and poor and somewhat of an outcast until a chance meeting with the popular “it” boy, Felix (Jacob Elordi). They forge an unlikely friendship and Oliver winds up being invited to spend the summer at Felix’s family mansion. From there, sh*t gets real weird. And we don’t want to ruin the premise for anyone because the shock is part of the schtick.
Some of Saltburn really works. Oliver turns out to be wilier than he seems and his way of manipulating people is too cunning. But too many moments feel like Fennell sat in front of her laptop and tried to dream up scenes that would make people gasp and then string them together to make a movie. Yes, some things make sense for the story. But others feel weirdly out of place and unnecessary, as if she herself lost the point of what she was trying to do (i.e. a vampiric scene with blood and sex in a garden).
The acting is tremendous with Keoghan outdoing himself. He is both endearing and wily, magnetic and deplorable. He shines in this role and proves he is more than capable of carrying a movie on his own. Elordi’s 2023 has been mighty already and Saltburn just adds to his growing resume as an actor of note. Fantastic but small turns from Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, and Archie Madekwe round out the cast.
By the time we see where Fennell is headed, the fun is gone and the anticipation is dulled. The shocks are aplenty but at the end of the two hours and eleven minutes we still aren’t sure what she was hoping to achieve. Saltburn feels like a wanna-be Parasite (2019) examining the structure of class and economics but instead condemns everyone involved and completely does away with nuance. Everyone is a villain here but It’s not quite as clever as Fennell might think it is. And the monologue at the very end feels a bit tiresome. We have to tip our cap to her for directing another entertaining movie, but wish she could avoid losing the thread in her screenplays.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like shocking moments
2. You like movies with twists
3. You want a peak behind the curtain of wealthy British aristocrats
